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GHRI8T RP OUR COUNTRY; 



OB, 



A Hopeful View of Christianity in the Present Day. 



BY REV. JOHN B. ROBINS, A.M., 

Of the North Georgia Conference. 



u We are saved by hope."— St. Paul. 



. 5 1889 y)/ 






Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 

J. D. Barbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. 

1889. 



st 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, 

By John B. Robins, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



J* 



> 

^ 

-* 



To My Father and Mother, Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Robins, 

Eatonton, Putnam County, Ga. 

John B. Robins. 

(3) 



PREFACE. 

Two books which have been generally read and almost univer- 
sally commended have lately made their appearance in America: 
"Our Country," by Dr. Josiah Strong; and "Modern Cities," by 
Samuel Lane Loomis. We are willing to admit that there is much 
truth in both, yet at the same time we expect to show that the tend- 
ency of both is damaging to any hopeful view of Christianity. 

Hurtful qualities have already made their appearance, and more 
of such qualities may come to the surface in the future. I met one 
of the most eminent and eloquent divines in the South not long 
since, and found his mind so saturated with the pessimistic influ- 
ences of "Our Country" that he had no hope, or at least very little, 
in his work. He was doubtful, gloomy, despondent.- 

A few months ago a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
made, before the Evangelical Alliance in Washington City, an ad- 
dress in which the same pessimistic spirit prevailed. The entire 
address was but a reiteration of the thought and methods predom- 
inating in " Our Country." 

The first Sunday in April, 1888, marked a peculiar fact in the his- 
tory of the pulpit in New York City. If the reports from these pul- 
pits are to be trusted, only two out of the hundreds gave any thing 
like a hopeful view of Christianity. It was so marked that even the 
secular press took notice of it. 

As a general thing the Southern people are sanguine and hope- 
ful, yet in our own periodicals for the past few months we get 
glimpses of this same influence. The spirit of Schopenhauer seems 
to have supplanted the spirit of St. Paul; and men, to the extent of 
their capacity (which is sometimes large, but oftener small), are 

(5) 



6 Preface, 

followers of a disappointed philosopher, rather than the disciples 
of a hopeful apostle. 

It is to counteract this influence and renew hope that any justifi- 
cation can be given for publishing the following pages. We ought 
to study facts, and to know something of their meaning and bearing 
on the Christianity of to-day; but when we seek to measure the in- 
fluence of that Christianity by such facts, and to understand its pres- 
ent condition and power from them, our field must be broad enough 
and our vision clear enough to gain a rational and hopeful view of 
it. This has not been done by late writers, who may be very fairly 
represented on one side by Dr. Strong and on the other by Colonel 
Ingersoll. Eecefit facts have been intensified by differentiating 
them from other facts. The past has been ignored so as to preclude 
the possibility of a clear apprehension of the truth. Even in late 
events certain facts are not duly weighed, while others are given an 
undue importance. We need a hopeful view in the present condi- 
tion of things. This we have tried to present. J. B. Kobins. 

Elberton, Ga., February 1, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. - page 
Delusive Crises 9 

Chapter II. 
Our Country — Its Eesources and Possibilities 17 

Chapter III. 
Increasing Wealth Not a Danger 24 

Chapter IV. 
Immigration Not a Danger 28 

Chapter V. 
Romanism as a Peril 36 

Chapter VI. 
Mormonism as a Peril 40 

Chapter VII. 
Socialism as a Peril 48 

Chapter VIII. 
The City as a Peril 64 

Chapter IX. 
Criticisms of Late Methods 68 

Chapter X. 
Christianity and the Survival of the Fittest 73 

Chapter XL 
Missionary Movements and Methods 79 

Chapter XII. 
How Christianity Reforms and Saves 89 

(7) 



8 Contents. 

Chapter XIII. Page 

The Needed Christianity of the Present 96 

Chapter XIV. 
Christianity's Real Antagonisms Ill 

Chapter XV. 
The Historical Trend 119 

Chapter XVI. 
Our Country , 128 

Chapter XVII. 
Conclusion 135 



CHRIST AND OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I 



Delusive Crises. 

DE. STEONG begins his book by calling atten- 
tion to an impending crisis, found in " the clos- 
ing years of the nineteenth century second in importance 
to that only which must always remain first — viz., 
the birth of Christ." I begin this by saying that 
there is in reality no such thing as an historical 
crisis. It is the habit of our minds to select certain 
striking events, and arrange about these our knowl- 
edge of the world. Our thoughts naturally collect 
themselves about such events. These are like high 
mountain-peaks, which give name and character to 
subordinate ranges. For convenience and mental 
discipline these imaginary crises accomplish a good 
purpose. They give us order in our thinking. But 
a man makes a fatal mistake who undertakes to 
explain the flow of events and to understand great 
historical movements by the crises he imagines ex- 
ist. Dr. Strong and others made this mistake at 
the outset. 

An apt illustration of the principle is found in the 

(9) 



10 Christ and Our Country. 

unfolding mind of a child. It is a common expe- 
rience among school-children to fix certain words, 
pictures, lessons in their minds, all through their 
text-books. These serve as points around which 
their knowledge of the books arranges itself, and by 
which it is remembered. It is the free and practical 
working of the power of association of ideas. The 
historical child-mind does the same thing and ac- 
complishes the same end by its crises. The striking 
events remembered help to recall those of less sup- 
posed importance. It would not do for a pupil to 
explain his text-book by some particular word, pict- 
ure, or lesson. Neither will it do for a student of 
history to explain a great movement by the crises 
around which his knowledge is gathered. 

There is a continuity in the text-book by which ev- 
ery lesson is properly connected with and related to 
every other lesson. So that he who would rightly 
understand the book must bring out every lesson. 
The crises of the book are submerged in the general 
flow of information. There is a continuity in histor- 
ical events, and he who would properly appreciate and 
understand its movement must eliminate the notion 
of crises altogether, and study each age as the out- 
come and further unfolding of forces and principles 
present and at work in the age preceding. In this 
way we may understand that from the beginning of 
time until the present there have been continuity and 



Delusive Crises. 11 

an unfolding of purpose in all events which are 
interdependent and correlated. The evolution has 
been equal to the involution. No one event can be 
singled out as of more importance than any other 
event. All are important alike, because all are cor- 
related. This is a principle that touches not only 
every fact connected with the present order of things, 
but also one which touches all events of all times. 
This general principle is contradicted by Dr. Strong 
in the very beginning of his book. We now consider 
specific cases in proof of this general principle. 

Dr. Strong instances but one crisis to which 
his own is subordinate, and that is "the birth of 
Christ." If St. Paul is to be trusted, even this most 
important of single events is not a crisis. He says 
that "when the fullness of the time was come, God 
sent forth his Son." There was a previous prepara- 
tion, a coming up to the fullness of time. The birth 
of the Lord Jesus Christ was but a further unfolding 
of forces at Work in the former times. It was a 
rising higher than previous events, and also a rising 
out of them. A race had been purged of unholy 
characters, and a people chosen for an ancestry. 
Even the " birth of Christ " falls into harmony with a 
great historical movement which reaches from the 
dawning of civilization to our present time, and 
which will continue its movement until the close of 
the final day. 



12 Christ and Oar Country. 

For the sake of clearness we advance one step far- 
ther. St. Paul employs his broadest statement on 
this question in his letter to the Church at Colosse. 
He calls Christ a "mystery" and his birth a full 
disclosure of the previously-hidden truth : " Even the 
mystery which hath been hid from ages and from 
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." 
It was the coming to fullness of an event which was 
possible in the very nature of things. This event 
itself was the precursor to other greater events. It 
was needful for him "to go away" as a preparation 
for the coming of the Spirit. And so the movement 
will go on until "the tabernacle of God is with 
men," and the divine idea of creation is worked out 
to the end. 

We may find the same principle illustrated in the 
Reformation, Luther did not make the Reforma- 
tion. . Previous events made a reformation possible, 
and Luther was the outcome of the spirit of his age. 
It was not a crisis, but hidden forces becoming visi- 
ble in their products. Prior to this time the Ref- 
formation was an inner force, a hidden fact, a mere 
possibility. Its causes are to be found in the deep 
recesses of unfolding life. 

The French Revolution finds its true explanation 
in all the events preceding it. An orthodox and ar- 
rogant Church, fearless advocates of human liberty, 
scientific investigations, and ignorant rulers — all had 



Delusive Crises. 13 

much to do in producing a revolution. It was the 
concrete expression of forces that are as deep and as 
old as human nature. The Kevolution was itself, 
with all its gathered forces, a preparation for still 
other events. It was the onward movement of hu- 
manity toward the full realization of its liberty. 

We may here conclude that the mind of breadth 
and grasp enough to study the world does not look at 
it in spots or judge of it by crises. We might as well 
expect to be proficient opticians by gaining a knowl- 
edge of the sun-spots, without any reference whatever 
to its radiating beams. The sun is known by its heat, 
its magnitude, its attractions, etc., and not by its 
spots or its eclipses. The history of the world must 
be studied as one movement, and its events are to be 
connected with a great world-purpose as their ground 
and explanation. 

Another objectionable feature connected with the 
work of recent thinkers is their method of singling 
out striking events. They take too narrow a view as 
to time. They forget, it seems, that apparent defeat, 
or even actual defeat, may be the best reason upon 
which to predicate future triumph. To have judged 
the South by what it was in 1865 would have driven 
any one to the conclusion that the South was ruined. 
After a few years that judgment would have been 
considerably modified. Now, after the lapse of 
twenty-three years, a man would be forced to change 



14 Christ and Our Country. 

his judgment entirely. The South is not ruined; 
but what was thought to be its destruction has re- 
sulted in the most marvelous growth and the most 
wonderful prosperity. In the want and poverty of 
the South in 1865 was given the basis of manly 
effort that has made her great. The South wears 
her laurels of victory in 1889. To limit our view in 
time we see may be to destroy it altogether. The 
full measurement of events depends for its correct- 
ness upon a wise patience. 

Here we may ask: If the disastrous results pre- 
dicted by Dr. Strong should come to pass about the 
close of this century, is Dr. Strong or any one else 
prepared to say that such results will not be for the 
best, and that they will prove to be so in the time to 
come? Has he or any one else weighed and meas- 
ured the events and forces that are at work on these 
closing years of this century? To look simply at 
such a culmination as he thinks is impending our 
times — and this is wholly imaginary — is to limit our 
view too much. There is more in it than disaster, 
even if it comes. There is final success in it. The 
world is built that way. 

Christianity, judged by the events connected with 
the death of our Lord, would have been regarded a 
failure. His truest disciples so regarded it. And 
yet the loss of his life was the beginning of his tri- 
umph, and that triumph has increased down to our 



Delusive Crises*. 15 

own time, and will continue until his words have 
proved true: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." A man or an institution, no 
matter how great when living, is greater when dead, 
and such life is incorporated in other men and insti- 
tutions. The Christianity of the future may build its 
'temple from the ruins of present Churches and 
creeds, and be the better for their overthrow. I 
would much prefer this view as the final outcome 
of present events than to think only of the downfall 
of American Churches. This last can only carry 
with it, to all who take such a view, the downfall of 
hope. 

At this point it seems necessary for me to say 
that all temporal things have their growth and de- 
cay, have their rise and fall. The body of a man, his 
governments and institutions, all have their critical 
periods, their backward turnings. Here is the ground 
upon which many are led into mistakes. "We have 
only to remember that we are not dealing with tem- 
poral things when we speak of the historical move- 
ment of the world. These events are its products, 
its fruits, and nothing more. No man can think 
of a crisis in the being or thought of God. It is 
impossible. The inner and mightiest movement of 
this world is the underlying purpose of God. It 
partakes of the nature of the Absolute, and hence 
can know no crisis. All events are bending toward 



16 Christ and Our Country. 

this great purpose, and are giving ns an unfolding 
design which shows its handiwork to be divine. The 
man who so studies it as to see this great purpose 
will have hope in his work, and gladness as the re- 
ward of his toil. 



CHAPTER II 



Our Country— Its Resources and Possibilities. 

DR. STRONG gives us a broad survey of our 
territory, a clear statement of our resources 
and possibilities, a good argument in favor of West- 
ern supremacy, and what would be, under more fa- 
vorable considerations, a very hopeful prospect of our 
country generally. For this he deserves the thanks 
of every American citizen. One would be obliged to 
think well of his country if his judgment was made up 
exclusively from the facts contained in these chapters. 
The immense areas of unoccupied land and the 
large territories sparsely settled are very gratifying 
facts to those who may be inclined to take a hopeful 
view of things. Much of our country has been filled 
with a good population, and many of our possibilities 
have become actualities in the last one hundred and 
fifty years. The South and West are rapidly filling 
up by immigrants from more thickly-populated States 
and countries. Here, as nowhere else, the resources 
are undergoing development. In the course of a few 
years we will have abundant harvests from fields now 
untilled, millions of dollars from mines now un- 
opened, and thousands of laborers employed in manu- 
factures that are hardly dreamed of to-day. All this 
2 (17) 



18 Christ and Our Country* 

and more will doubtless be true. This is a wonder- 
ful country in its actualities, and much more wonder- 
ful in its possibilities. It is to-day, even in its unde- 
veloped condition, the wealthiest country on the globe. 
What will it be when the great West is inhabited by 
thrifty and productive citizens, and when all its re- 
sources begin to count for something in the world of 
fact? 

In the Old World nearly all wealth -producing forces 
have reached a maximum, while here they are all in- 
creasing. Not only that, but they seem to have the 
quality of infinite development. The institutions of 
Europe, many of them, show age and sometimes de- 
cay; while here there is life and growth. There 
monarchies, both absolute and limited, feel the force 
of advancing powers by which the world is to be set 
free; while here a great republic thrives. There 
creeds grow old and dignities made sacred by age are 
losing their influence; while here the freshness and 
vigor of new life inspires and exalts a progressive 
people. There men are still under chafing yokes and 
have to bear heavy burdens ; here they are free to act 
for themselves and in perfect harmony with their 
own consciences. 

Much may be learned from these worthy people, 
these nations old in the evolution of their life and 
civilization. Here many of the problems that vex 
the American people and that are now before us for 



Our Country — Its Resources and Possibilities. 19 

judgment have been settled. Those countries have 
all been new and had their influx of population, their 
increasing cities, their multiplied industries, their 
growing manufactories, and their undeveloped re- 
sources. Many problems growing out of such condi- 
tions have been solved for us by some of thesa coun- 
tries in the past thousand years or so. Many laws 
of social, intellectual, practical, and national life have 
been discovered, many principles illustrated, and 
many perils overcome. We see them as they are to- 
day — the results of struggle, of battles for existence, 
of triumphs or defeats in the race for life. All these 
things can teach us much. It is true we are sailing on 
an untried sea, but we need the compass and charts 
of the sailors whose journey has ended. There is 
nothing wrong in populating our country and in de- 
veloping its resources. 

There will be a Western supremacy. This is in- 
evitable. The center of population has continuously 
moved westward from the beginning of our history. 
It will not be many years before this center will 
cross the Mississippi Kiver. Its course will be un- 
changed until our country is thickly inhabited. This 
same West will one day control the Congress of the 
United States so far as its numbers are concerned. 
This is certain. If it has more wealth, a greater 
population, and richer resources than the East, it 
ought to control. This is right. 



20 Christ and Our Country. 

The character of these immigrants to the West 
ought to be studied. All countries are contributing 
to this growing population, but far the greater num- 
ber are from the more thickly-settled portions of the 
United States. Our own people are moving west- 
ward and finding homes and founding institutions. 
New cities spring up like magic, but the magic is 
grounded in the enterprise and industry of the older 
portions of our country. All the new appliances, 
conveniences, and comforts of Boston and New York 
City are transferred to the new towns in the West. 
Churches grow up along with the other growths, all of 
which are the direct products of our civilization. In- 
deed, it may be truthfully said that the civilization 
of the East is moving westward with the population. 
The new West is also a new East. 

Only a few years ago Texas was a wilderness. It 
is now a prosperous, wealthy, well-peopled State. 
Its schools, its churches, its colleges, its government 
and morals, will compare favorably with many of our 
older and more dignified commonwealths. What is 
true of Texas may and possibly will be true of all 
other Western States and Territories. 

An old man does not enjoy the sports of a boy, and 
sometimes he so far forgets himself as to think that 
these sports are really sinful. The same thing is true 
of older States and nations. They forget the rough, 
angular, q uas /-barbarous manners and customs once 



Our Country — Its Resources and Possibilities. 21 

characteristic of their own life, and condemn the 
same things in unmeasured terms in other and newer 
States and nations. The sports of the boy will help 
to make him a man some day. and the rough quasi- 
barbarous life will help to make a nation some day. 

Even from this practical and secular point of view 
every American citizen feels proud of his country. 
It has withstood many dangers, and is better pre- 
pared for counteracting others to-day than ever be- 
fore. It has been impregnable to foes without, and 
demonstrated her power and her glory. There have 
been family difficulties, trying and cruel. These have 
not destroyed her. In all she has shown a magnanim- 
ity unparalleled in the history of the world. These 
have resulted in a real, not an imaginary, Union. 
Here we might end this chapter were it not for the 
fact that Dr. Strong has failed to consider our great- 
est resources — to wit, our intellectual and spiritual re- 
sources. It is to these that we must look for our 
greatest improvement. 

Heretofore, with but few exceptions, the mental 
power of our people has been largely exercised in 
practical affairs. The accumulation of money and 
the settlement of millions of acres of land have re- 
ceived most consideration of our people. Not much 
of it has been given to purely literary or philosoph- 
ical pursuits. Our colleges and universities are pan- 
dering to the notion of the practical. As to philos- 



22 Christ and Our Country. 

opliy we have nothing worthy the name. English 
thought has dominated the American mind. If En- 
gland has ever demonstrated any truth clearly, it is 
that she is incapable of producing a philosophy. In 
this country men of a speculative turn of mind rarely 
know where to find a philosophical system, to say 
nothing of a philosophy. Here and there may be 
found indications of a truly American philosophy. 
There is enough on the surface to demonstrate that 
a rich mine is underneath, and that one day its 
wealth of thought will be utilized by American 
thinkers. This will come in as a later development 
of our national resources. For the present we must 
gin our cotton, smelt our ores, and build our factories. 
Another possibility grows out of the fact that our 
orthodoxy in religion is the orthodoxy of England, 
and not that of America. Religious possibilities are 
slow, in their evolution. With but few exceptions 
England has furnished us our religious thought. 
Our creeds, our prayer-books, our theology, and our 
Bible are all English. It is true that Germany now 
has pre-eminence in critical method; but it is gen- 
erally Anglicised before it reaches America. I favor 
an American religion, with its creeds, liturgies, theol- 
gies, and orthodoxies. Every creed, every religious 
system bears the marks of climate, race, and historical 
notions. We little dream how much Norse religion 
we have mixed up with our Christianity, and how 



Our Country — Its Resources and Possibilities. 23 

muck of the cold, slow, yet stately moving qualities 
of the Englishman is found in our religious notions 
and modes of worship. 

In this country there has been a considerable break- 
ing away from uncongenial elements in our spiritual 
environment. At first it showed itself as indiffer- 
ence. This period is about over, and now there is a 
positive power antagonistic to those time-honored 
notions; or in other words, Christianity is taking on 
an American form, in which spiritual freedom plays 
a wonderful part. There is a preparation for new ideas 
about old things, old doctrines and principles. There 
is coming an enlarged hope for the enlarged capaci- 
ties of the American people. 

The notion of human, government took on the 
form of a republic, which is a purely American idea. 
This stands apart from all other notions of govern- 
ment, and yet contains all others in its grasp. So the 
Christianity of America is developing a life and tak- 
ing on a form peculiar to itself. This will contain in 
its sweep every other form of Christianity. The un- 
occupied lands, the wealth-producing qualities, the 
immense expansion of our resources may all be great 
possibilities in themselves, but to my mind the great- 
est of all possibilities is found in the possible devel- 
opment of the minds and Christian characters of the 
American people. 



CHAPTER III 



Increasing Wealth Not a Danger. 

a RE AT fortunes and a great increase of foreign 
immigration furnish ground for many fears to 
the minds of those who take either a selfish or super- 
ficial view of our country. Let us study closely our 
increasing wealth and our growing population. 

Dr. Gladden has written a little book, "Applied 
Christianity," that I con Id wish had been more widely 
read and more thoroughly understood by the thinkers 
of our time. Among the first propositions discussed 
is this: that wealth is the product of Christianity. 
He not only gives us a fine argument, but one based 
upon statistics which show conclusively the truth of 
his proposition to every inquiring and unprejudiced 
mind. The world without Christ would be no world 
at all. Man without Christianity is not only a bar- 
barian, but very nearly a brute. The wealth of the 
nations is the product of religion, of Christianity. 
Millions of money and increasing wealth are the 
natural products of a higher development of man. 
Christianity proposes not simply the salvation of men 
in heaven, but also the highest possible development 
of manhood in this life, and as a natural result the 
highest possible development of a world life. Its 

(24) 



Increasing Wealth Not a Danger. 25 

force is not expended in the freedom of an individual. 
Its object is not really and truly attained until hu- 
manity is free in the same way. So that we have not 
only the development of individual character, but also 
the unfolding of a better world character. 

One of the notions prominent in any correct defini- 
tion of Christianity would be that it is a revelation 
of defects in men. These defects are revealed 
through conscious wants. The gratification of these 
wants, the correction of these defects, the completion 
of a true manhood, and the beautifying and enlarging 
of a world life constitute a basis upon which rests all 
Our commerce that is normal and profitable. This 
gives increasing wealth. That there is room for 
perversion, room for greed, no one will deny. These 
things are to be expected. 

One of the safeguards connected with the correc- 
tion of these human defects and the necessary ac- 
cumulation of wealth lies in the very peril Dr. Strong 
dreads — to wit, the accumulation of large fortunes 
by individuals. It is a storing up, a self-preserva- 
tion of the accumulated money forces, until the 
selfishness and greed of the world are reduced and 
better ideas inculcated so that a distribution of such 
wealth is no longer dangerous. It is stored treasure 
for future use, as the heat of former ages is stored in 
immense coal-fields. At the right time it will come 
forth to bless the race as a servant, and not as a 



26 ' Christ and Our Country. 

master. Occasionally we get glimpses how this is to 
be done. Yanderbilt gives a ball which costs him a 
hundred thousand dollars. This money went to bless 
many a home and to support many a family that 
needed it. One of the great treasuries leaked a hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and hundreds were blessed in 
its distribution. The elder Yanderbilt endowed a 
Southern university with a million dollars, and that 
million is used to educate, elevate, and bless hundreds 
of young men. De Lesseps has been a wonderful man 
in developing the world and unloosing thousands of 
treasured gold. Every railroad built, every new 
factory erected fills the mouths of the hungry with 
bread and gives the laborer something to do. Every 
enterprise that looks to the gratification of natural 
wants is the key that unlocks the vaults of individ- 
uals and places a part of the accumulated wealth into 
the pockets of the laborer. This is true with men 
who make no pretensions to religion. On the side 
of religion we can say that every gift to a charitable 
institution, every college endowed, and every school 
equipped is a breaking into individual fortunes. The 
name of Peter Cooper is immortal because he was a 
faithful steward and rightly administered the money 
that a progressive Christianity had produced. There 
is a law of distribution which regulates wisely and 
justly the accumulated wealth of a nation. 

The millions of money in the United States more 



Increasing Wealth Not a Danger. 27 

completely distributed would be a curse and not a 
blessing. Even an equal distribution of money, 
which would give each individual something over 
8800, would result in the overthrow of our civiliza- 
tion. It would prove disastrous. There are pro- 
found principles underlying all commerce, all money 
transactions, every one of which points to the eleva- 
tion and purification of all men. It should be our 
purpose to rightly understand existing facts, and 
thereby come to a knowledge of the inner life and 
purposes of a civilization like ours. 

The immense wealth looked for by Dr. Strong in 
the future of our country has no fear - producing 
qualities to my mind. On the other hand, this is one 
of the ways by which I determine the final triumph 
of Christ. This is one of the evidences of his tri- 
umph. It is no reflection on Christianity to say that 
the world is becoming richer and its population 
greater. Many calculations about the future of such 
things are extremely ridiculous. There seems to be 
a forgetfulness of the fact that there are counterbal- 
ancing and opposiug forces at play in the progress of 
things. This will appear as we advance. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Immigration Not a Danger. 

IT is our purpose to show in this chapter that im- 
migration is not a peril to our institutions. We 
will find, I think, that certain great laws are at work 
in the matter of immigration, just as in many other 
dangerous things, which will regulate and control it. 
Many forces are at work and many laws are in opera- 
tion which a careful study of European life would 
help us to understand and apply. A few things have 
to be proven by facts, and not by figures. As people 
become more numerous and a country more populous 
there is a reduction in the fertility of the race. Not 
so many children are born. Families are not so 
large. This is a fact showing that a law is secretly 
at work to equalize the population to the conditions 
under which such race or people is placed. No arith- 
metical table, no matter how nicely adjusted, could 
ever be made to demonstrate this law. The, numer- 
ical equality of sexes is maintained under the opera- 
tion of another law which only facts can prove. A 
country may lose vast numbers ' of males in battle, 
so that females would constitute a large majority. 
The natural law of increase would keep this majority 
large. But this is corrected by a law which begins 
C28) 



Immigration Not a Danger. 29 

at once to restore the numerical equality of the sexes. 
In a few years the nation whose males were in a 
minority finds its sexes equalized, and then the nat- 
ural law of increase works as it did before the deple- 
tion. As people become crowded the birth-rate de- 
creases, so that things are equalized. 

It will not do, therefore, to take the present per- 
centage of increase, and calculate from this rate of in- 
crease the possible number of inhabitants a hundred 
years from now. Four centuries ago the natural in- 
crease of the Indians, taken as a basis of calculation, 
would have filled two such continents as this by the 
present. The facts are against the figures. The 
counteracting law here was bringing an inferior race 
into competition with a very highly-developed one. 
One has increased, and the other is nearly extinct. 
So we find that many, pursuing the same idea, calcu- 
late that the natural increase of the negro race in 
America will result in many millions a few decades 
from now. It is the Indian problem over again. 
The only additional feature connected with it is due 
to the self-interest of those who can use the negro. 
This becomes less every year, and soon it will be the 
competition of an inferior race with a very strong one, 
and the extermination of the negro will result in the 
natural order of things. In all of these cases there 
are laws at work regulating, eliminating, and equaliz- 
ing things in the struggles of men for existence. 



30 Christ and Our Country. 

Increase from immigration is corrected by a law 
peculiar to itself. Immigrants now go to the unset- 
tled West, where there are lands to cultivate; and to 
our cities, where laborers find a place to work and 
live. No man is going to a place where the struggle 
for existence is increased or likely to increase. Men 
move because they hope to do better. 

The population of any community becomes stable 
whenever the conclusion is reached that present sur- 
roundings guarantee as much as those of any other 
place. A man will not move from Georgia to Texas 
when he believes he can do as well in Georgia as he 
can in Texas. He does not go to a new place because 
it is new, but because the effort to live is reduced 
and the chances of success in money-making are in- 
creased. This is the whole question. A broader view 
than that generally given would lead us to conclude 
that all these questions about immigration would in 
time right themselves and correct the inherent dan- 
gers, if such exist. 

The method of arguing these questions by Dr. 
Strong and others may be justly called statistical 
logic. Absolute confidence is placed in figures, in 
rates of increase, etc. All calculations based on this 
rate of increase by birth and immigration remind 
one of a gentleman who proposed to go into the carp- 
raising business. " Each female," said he, " will lay 
so many million eggs in a season; say two million of 



Immigration Not a Danger. 31 

these eggs will hatch. The second year my pond 
will be stocked with two million carp, the product of 
one female. At the end of the third year these two 
million fish will weigh at the least calculation four 
pounds apiece, which would be eight million pounds. 
These fish will readily sell in the market for ten 
cents per pound, netting me the neat sum of eight 
hundred thousand dollars. At the end of five years, 
admitting that there may be some losses, and making 
an allowance for all disasters, expenses etc., I can 
reasonably expect to be worth a million dollars, and 
perhaps much more." His problem works out all 
right on paper, and looks reasonable. The figures 
would not and did not lie; but will the facts ever 
measure up to the figures? Never. Ten thousand 
forces are at work to reduce the number of carp that 
will be produced in any pond or river. So these doc- 
tors make their calculations, and the tables are all 
complete. It is an undeniable statement in figures, 
and presents a beautiful problem well worked out on 
paper, but will never find any existence apart from 
very imaginative minds and the record made on 
paper — a far more substantial thing than the imagin- 
ary minds conceiving such problems and trembling 
under their dangers. 

Long tables of statistics are given to prove that a 
larger proportion of our population lives in cities now 
than a few years or decades ago. Other tables are 



32 Christ and Our Country. 

given to prove that the life of the people in the 
United States in the time to come will be largely city 
life. These are facts that most people will admit 
without any proof. The growth of cities in number 
and population is not a calamity, but a blessing. 
The crowding of people together is a system of educa- 
tion in itself. Cities are not only the centers of trade, 
of labor, of wealth, of population, but also the center 
of great ideas — not the originators of great ideas. 
These are the products of other conditions. But when 
great ideas — political, economic, religious, and philo- 
sophical — are produced they fall into these crowded 
channels, where they find rapid movement. There is 
a continuous current flowing in and a continuous life 
flowing out. The discoverer of a new electric light 
soon has his idea made known, and thoroughly under- 
stood by even the rabble in the streets illuminated 
by this new light. Evils may find the same com- 
merce and move with the same rapidity; but we must 
not look at the evils and be blind to the benefits. In 
a thousand ways men are benefited by crowding to- 
gether in the cities. These benefits are worthy of 
some consideration. 

It is shown— and truthfully too— that foreign im- 
migration has greatly increased in the last few years, 
and the dangers therewith connected receive weighty 
consideration by Dr. Strong and his followers. It 
would appear that our free institutions are in danger 



I mm i(/ration Not a Danger. 33 

and that the whole country was on the verge of 
destruction because a few thousand strange, ignorant 
people are coming to our shores. There are many 
warnings, dark forebodings, and exhortations to dili- 
gence on the part of Christian men and women lest 
they lose their inheritance among the saints and be- 
come outcasts in the country of their fathers. "We 
have already shown that immigration in time will 
correct itself. People will quit coming to America 
just as soon as they find out that the struggle for life 
here is as severe as it is in their native country. I, 
for one, am willing to leave this question to its own 
regulation under its own law. To our conclusion al- 
ready reached I will add the following reasons as 
ground for hope in the present conditions of immi- 
gration to the United States. 

1. What brings these foreigners to our country? 
Many are fleeing from governments that oppress and 
institutions that grind the life out of them. Heavy 
taxation to support standing armies, from three to 
ten years of young manhood given to one's country 
in military service, class distinctions, royalties, gilded 
ignorance, and often a moneyed aristocracy, whose 
most distinguishing character is sensuality — all these 
and a thousand other causes are bringing foreigners 
to our country. In other words, hundreds and thou- 
sands are coming to America for the very same rea- 
son that prompted our forefathers to come. America 



34 Christ and Our Country. 

was a refuge from the hardships, privations, and op- 
pression of their own governments. They came to 
be free. So immigrants are coming to-day, if not to 
be free, at least to find a better country and a brighter 
prospect for life. Their notions of freedom may be 
very vague, and these notions may take on the form of 
anarchy or rebellion against all government. This 
differs very little from our way of formerly dealing 
with English tradesmen, provincial landlords, or even 
the aborigines of our soil. Out of such beginning 
has come our great Republic. Is there not some- 
thing of value in even the crudest notions of human 
liberty? There must be. These immigrants will 
know better when they become better under the civ- 
ilizing influences of our laws and institutions. There 
is not much ground for apprehension here. 

2. There is nothing per se in a man's having been 
born in a foreign land to alienate him from American 
institutions, or to create any ground for fear among 
American citizens. If so, our greatest danger is over 
in this direction, for there was a time when all were 
of foreign birth, and when our affairs were wholly de- 
pendent upon such foreign-born citizens for the man- 
ner of their administration. If the country was pre- 
served then, and made preparations for the best gov- 
ernment on the earth, is there much ground for fear 
now, with only about one-tenth of its population for- 
eign born? If our republic, the culmination so far 



Immigration Xot a Danger. 35 

of all earthly governments, ever goes down, it will not 
be attributed to foreign immigration, but to causes 
found in itself. 

3. The learned talk about crises, the nourish of 
statistics, and the recounting of multiplied dangers 
cannot and should not be used as an argument to re- 
duce confidence in the power of Christianity. Such 
an argument has already produced this result in 
many superficial minds. Even now gloom and doubt 
have settled upon hundreds of minds, because dangers 
and fears have been imaginatively magnified and in- 
tensified beyond any thing like due limits. Even a 
surface view of Christianity is sufficient to convince 
any one that its triumphs are not predicated of an 
absence of numbers, money, and influence of opposing 
powers. It has demonstrated its power to conquer 
when brought in contact with the wisest and strong- 
est. How much danger is there, then, in a few igno- 
rant foreigners and a few thousand uncivilized people 
crowded into certain localities in our large cities? 
An old Jew could say of infantile Christianity that 
if this work is "of God ye cannot overthrow it." 
Time and again has it been declared and proved that 
" the kingdom of God cometh not with observation." 
There is neither danger to the country nor to Chris- 
tianity by increasing population, foreign immigration, 
growing cities, or any other alien cause. This is still 
God's world, and he has charge of its affairs. 



CHAPTER V. 



Romanism as a Peril. 

EOMANISM is considered by Dr. Strong and 
others of like minds as one of the greatest perils 
to American institutions and especially to Protestant 
Christianity. Is there any ground for such fear? We 
think not, and assign for so thinking the following 
reasons : 

The increase in the Catholic Church in this coun- 
try is due largely to immigration. This is an admit- 
ted fact by all statisticians. It has very few converts 
from the Protestant Churches. This is much more 
than overbalanced by the converts from Rome to the 
American Churches. It is impossible to come at 
the facts either as to the strength or number of con- 
verts. The Catholics count population, not communi- 
cants. It is impossible, therefore, to get at their true 
standing. This much we know, and it is admitted 
by Catholics themselves: They are not holding their 
own on English soil. They have lost a million of 
members, from their own showing. At the last cen- 
sus in France six millions of Frenchmen refused to 
be called Catholics. Dr. Harrison, in Southern Meth- 
odist Review for July, makes the statement that " the 

whole Romanist population in the United States does 
(36) 



Romanism as a Peril, 37 

not restore the balance lost by the papacy in France 
alone within the last twenty years." 

The spirit of the times is against the claims of the 
Koman Catholic Church. The world is getting to 
itself a conscience and is beginning to act in accord- 
ance with it. Denunciations from the Vatican and 
edicts from the successor of St. Peter cannot drive 
back the tide that is ever rising higher. Like an- 
other royal fool, who undertook to command the 
waves, this prelatical one must move back his chair 
or be swamped in the coming tide. The institutions 
of our country stand opposed to the promulgation of 
any narrow or slavish system, of either government 
or religion. The freedom of mind demands freedom 
of conscience, and in the union of the two priestcraft 
or Church-craft must go to the wall. This is not only 
true of the Catholic Church, but of any other Church 
that may claim authority to dictate to a free man's con- 
science. This is putting Romanism in its worst light. 
It is admitting that all the charges brought against 
it are true. Even in this view there are many in- 
fluences which greatly modify it. Catholics cannot 
keep from becoming partakers of the spirit of the 
nineteenth century. The spirit that fills the hearts 
of perhaps forty millions of people in these United 
States creates a social, political, and religious atmos- 
phere that even a Catholic cannot resist. He will be- 
come a partaker of its nature. Witness the recent 



38 Christ and Our Country. 

scenes in New York over the expulsion of a popular 
priest, and the rebellious attitude of Ireland to the 
orders of the pope. There may be a show of obedi- 
ence on the surface, but underneath this is burning 
the spirit of the bright and hopeful life of the present. 
Even the darkest picture of this Church which is 
possible to be drawn gains some hopeful tints by be- 
ing brought into the light. 

But suppose we admit the argument in its fullest 
sense, as presented by those who think that this 
Church gives good reason for fear, the question would 
still remain: Has Christianity or Protestantism any 
thing to fear from it? I answer: No. There was a 
time when the Catholic Church held full sway in the 
world, when its temporal power was immense, and 
when it made and unmade kings. Can we forget 
that these things have been and are gone ? Surely if 
it had not the power to continue when all was in its 
possession, how can it hope to succeed when only a 
part of its possessions remain? Its temporal power is 
gone. It no longer crowns and uncrowns kings. A 
reformation not only gave the world the Protestant 
Churches, but also eliminated much from the Catho- 
lic Church upon which it had relied. The spirit of 
the Reformation, of every reformation, still remains 
and will continue to remain. It is part and parcel of 
that great movement which is bringing the race to 
better ideas of freedom and to spiritual Christianity. 



Romanism as a Peril. 39 

No matter how we view the question, provided we 
take a broad enough view of it, there is nothing in 
the Catholic Church for the American people to fear. 
Their very climate, government, schools, and free in- 
stitutions are their bulwarks against all opposition 
from this quarter. Let this Church itself catch the 
inspiration of our time, as I believe it will do, and in 
the power of a brighter hope go on to victory in sav- 
ing the lost. It is the best Church to-day for thou- 
sands of people, and so let it live and do its work. 



CHAPTER VI 



Mormonism as a Peril. 

THE question now before us is this: Is Mormon- 
ism a peril ? Dr. Strong says it is. In what way 
is it perilous ? By its polygamy and political power. 
That polygamy is obnoxious to all civilized or Chris- 
tian thought is not to be denied, but that Mormonism 
in any of its forms will imperil the institutions of 
the United States I most emphatically deny. There 
are good reasons, as I think, upon which this denial is 
based. 

Mormonism has never been able to withstand the 
influence of civilized life. It has been on the go from 
its beginning until now. Its first conference was 
held at Fayette, Seneca County, N. T. Soon after 
its organization it was driven to Kirtland, O., in 1830. 
In 1838 the Mormons moved to Caldwell County, 
Mo., and the next move carried them near Com- 
merce, Hancock County, 111. In 1846 they estab- 
lished themselves at Salt Lake, Utah. A little rec- 
ognition by the United States Government, in ap- 
pointing Brigham Young Governor of Utah, gave 
them prestige as a territory. The pressure of our 
Government has been felt by them. That pressure is 

increasing. Only a few years ago delegates from the 
(40) 



Mormonism as a Peril. 41 

Mormon Church were sent into Mexico on an explor- 
ing expedition. The object to be gained was to find 
a place where the Mormon seat of government might 
be planted and be secure. 

"What is true of the people is also true of their re- 
ligion. It has been undergoing great changes. At 
first it was a gwcm'-christianity. Polygamy was no 
part of it. A new revelation was given to Smith on 
the subject. The foundation of such revelation grew 
out of his own licentiousness. On July 12, 1843, 
polygamy was expressly established. Other revela- 
tions have been made until the original doctrine has 
become so adulterated as hardly to be recognized. It 
has lost all claims whatever to be called Christian. 
Its great end now is to preserve its polygamy and 
gain an earthly kingdom. It is American politics 
and polygamy mixed. 

It is to this phase of it I invite attention. As to 
many of the doctrines of Mormonism I shall say 
nothing. Many of them are good. No wine is to be 
drank except at communion. No tobacco is to be 
used. No meats to be eaten except in extremely cold 
weather. They ought to be temperate and healthy 
— two good qualifications for life. They have no 
definite notion of God. It is too polytheistic to be 
considered in this age. W 7 hatever there is good and 
true in it will remain. Whatever is false and harm- 
ful will be eliminated. Polygamy and Mormon poli- 



42 Christ and Our Country. 

tics are hurtful, therefore they are to be eliminated. 
Let us see how this is to be done. 

High authorities in this country and Europe de- 
clare that "polygamy is doomed." This statement 
is founded on the fact that nature has provided 
against the establishment and continuance of any 
such practice. Even in Utah there are nearly ten 
thousand more males than females. There is no 
place from which recruits can be had to supply de- 
fective families and unnatural wants, for in the 
United States there are nearly a million more males 
than females. 

It is, too, in direct conflict with a natural instinct of 
woman; for, however much may be said or written on 
the question of total depravity, one thing has been 
saved from the wreck, and that is the purity of woman. 
Her heart is turned against another of her sex shar- 
ing her home and her husband. She feels the power 
of this even in Mormonism. All the fanaticism and 
prejudice of a fanatical religion cannot crush out her 
better nature. 

The great reason why polygamy cannot be carried 
on long by Mormonism is due to the fact that the 
United States Government, backed by over fifty mill- 
ions of people, is against it. In such a struggle it 
is not difficult to calculate which will be the success- 
ful party — a hundred thousand malcontents or fifty 
millions of civilized people. It seems ridiculous 



Mormonism as a Peril. 43 

under such circumstances to talk about polygamy 
being a danger to our country. A few Mormon 
priests, with their foolish prattle about gaining pos- 
session of a few States and Territories — a foolish and 
an impossible thing to do, as we shall all see — has 
caused a few good men to fear the overthrow of our 
Government. 

Every school established, every cent of money ex- 
pended in education, every church built, every mis- 
sionary sent to Utah means the overthrow of polyg- 
amy. Mormonism must give way to advancing 
civilization, and its polygamy will fall first of all. 
These wanderers of America may be driven to some 
other hiding-place, and establish another Mecca to 
which the saints will carry their substance and do 
reverence to their prophet, but there is no abiding- 
place on this earth for an institution that robs woman- 
hood of its virtue and manhood of its freedom. 

We now turn to its political phase. Is there any 
thing in this view of Mormonism to create apprehen- 
sion. Here we must be a little more careful in our 
examination, for it is here that the greatest claims 
of Mormon priests are made — viz. : to subvert our in- 
stitutions and to destroy our heritage. Their whole 
aim now seems to be to establish an earthly power or 
kingdom. Can it be done? What reasonable basis 
can be given to such statements as many of them 
make? A good many things which Utah does not 



44 Christ and Our Country. 

possess are necessary in the establishment of a strong 
government, or such as would present a formidable 
appearance to "the powers that be." No country 
can ever be much without agriculture, and it is an im- 
possibility in Utah. The Territory is made up of steep 
mountain-sides, deserts, dry plateaus, and a small por- 
tion of country that is rendered productive by arti- 
ficial irrigation. Its agricultural products do not 
amount to four million dollars annually. From a 
geological survey we see that its arable lands are 
limited and that its annual products can be but little 
increased. Its annual rain-fall is only sixteen inches 
— not enough, hardly, to support any sort of vegeta- 
tion. 

It can never do much in manufactures, for the sim- 
ple fact that there is nothing there to manufacture. 
Its mining interest is alone relied upon for income. 
Its silver-mines and coal-fields are very valuable, and 
are sufficient to supply the needs of a large colony. 
If we look at Utah alone, we can find nothing to sup- 
port the conclusion that it will ever produce a strong 
government. The only chance for such a dream ever 
to come true is for the Mormons to gain possession of 
the surrounding Territories. Can they do it? 

Utah itself has not held its own as a Mormon coun- 
try. Its population at the last census was 143,963. 
The membership of the Mormon Church — and they 
are not all in Utah — is 110,377. But if we admit that 



Mormonism as a Peril. 45 

they are all in Utah, there is a Gentile population of 
33,586. So that even in its own borders the Mormon 
Church is not holding its own. The States and Ter- 
ritories immediately surrounding Utah, and which 
would be most likely to be overcome by it, are being 
settled up much faster than Utah. The estimated 
rate of incease in population for Utah is ten per cent. ; 
For Colorado, twelve per cent. ; Wyoming, twenty-nine 
per cent.; Idaho, sixteen per cent.; Nevada, about 
twenty per cent.'; Arizona, twenty-one per cent.; and 
New Mexico, twenty-one per cent. From these rates 
of increase it will be seen that all surrounding Terri- 
tories are increasing their populations much more 
rapidly than Utah. In the struggle for supremacy 
they all have a better chance to succeed than Utah, 
with the exception of Nevada. Any of these have 
more arable land, and a majority of them a much 
•better rain-fall than Utah. 

In addition to all this it has no outlet. It is shut 
in to its own resources. It is surrounded by a civili- 
zation which is antagonistic to its policy and its re- 
ligion. To support a great population and to create 
any great wealth is an utter impossibility, from the 
very nature of the case. More than this, there is ab- 
solutely nothing inherent in Mormonism or its prac- 
ticed policy out of which to make a national life. It 
is a religious despotism, with all of its energies cen- 
tered in one man. The head of the Mormon Church 



46 Christ and Our Country. 

virtually owns Utah. When we see European thrones 
of like character falling or modifying their policy to 
suit the present times, is it to be feared that a hun- 
dred thousand ignorant and fanatical Mormons can 
ever survive as the fittest among the nations of the 
earth? It looks silly to even dream of such a thing. 
How much more so is it to enter into a serious ar- 
gument to prove that it will gain possession of the 
United States Congress? "It is the old problem of 
the whale swallowing Jonah," with the problem made 
difficult by being reversed. 

Some thinkers seem to have the notion that the 
United States Government is a very easy thing to 
overthrow, or at least to suffer great damage from 
very small forces. How has it been in the past? It 
was strong enough in 1776 to declare its independ- 
ence and to maintain it against the strongest power 
then existing on the earth. It was a mere child then. 
In 1860 there began a struggle, where this same Gov- 
ernment was opposed by a seceding part of itself. 
This , opposing power had almost a boundless sea- 
coast, the most fruitful climate in America, millions of 
men and money, and as brave an army as ever shoul- 
dered muskets. Was this Government destroyed? 
Not at all. It is stronger to-day than ever before. 
Her people are united and her institutions loved. If 
you were to give Utah a thousand years, situated as it 
is, and surrounded as it is by our civilization and by a 



Mormonism as a Peril. 47 

growing population, it would never be able to marshal 
men and money as the South did in the Civil War. 

Another thing is true, apart from all that has been 
said: Mormonism viewed in any way, whether as a 
religion or a political power, is built upon the lower 
appetites and passions of human nature. Such a 
thing eventually falls to pieces by its innate rottenness. 
Every civilization, to have the quality of permanency 
attached to it, must be formed around some great 
idea, not some greed or passion. Mormonism has no 
great idea, has no idea at all. Hence its prolonga- 
tion becomes an absolute impossibility. Its very 
converts are among a class of people whose education 
and morals are at zero. Its chance for recruits is 
lessened by every school-house built, by every man 
that is made wiser. Whether we study its inward 
force or its outward strength there is no hope for 
Mormonism to succeed. It will be regarded in the 
coming time as passion's wildest dream, and its hope 
of national supremacy as a childish fancy. It has no 
truth for hungry minds, no inspiration for sinking 
hearts. Its history will be a cruel story, and its 
name be forgotten without an anthem of praise. The 
world will push it aside as an empty hull, and 
humanity will lay it away as a useless garment. The 
world may be better because Mormonism has been, 
and humanity's story bighter because of its over- 
throw. Let it die and be buried. 



CHAPTER VII 



Socialism as a Peril. 

THE treatment of socialism by Dr. Strong is pe- 
culiar in that lie only presents one phase of it, 
and that the most revolting to the mind of an Amer- 
ican citizen. Any such line of argument is unfair 
because it suppresses all facts going to show a modi- 
fication of the evil presented. His notion is summed 
up in the beginning of the chapter on socialism. 
" Socialism attempts to solve the problem of suffering 
without eliminating the factor of sin. It says: * From 
each according to his abilities, to each according to 
his wants.' " His entire chapter is a sermon from 
this text, given him by Louis Blanc. He proceeds to 
make out his conclusion by quoting such authors and 
stating such facts as bear directly upon this dictum. 
The fanatical and visionary dreams of cranks are the 
most convincing facts in his idea of socialism. Dr. 
Strong — and I believe he was perfectly sincere — would 
have his readers believe that here was expended an 
immense amount of human energy, and no good 
resulting from it. The socialistic movement, to his 
mind, is wholly evil. There is no good in it and none 
to come out of it. Is such a thing possible? Is it 
true that millions of men are giving their lives to a 

(48) 



Socialism as a Peril. 49 

cause which can result in no permanent benefit to the 
race? Dr. Strong would lead us to conclude that 
such is the case. This notion does not fit that of St. 
Paul, who said: " We can do nothing against the truth, 
but for the truth." We must remember, too, that he 
was speaking of evil deeds as well as good ones. 
Will "the wrath of man praise" God? or is it true 
that the Ruler of the universe has confided to man 
forces the use of which would result in the destruc- 
tion of his own purposes? If so, then belief in him 
becomes an impossibility. We are left on a shore- 
less sea, to drift we know not where, and to cast an- 
chor we know not when. 

What are the causes of socialism in the opinion of 
Dr. Strong? I use Dr. Strong as the representative 
of a class of thinkers, believing that the refutation of 
his arguments will result in the refutation of all 
those of his followers. Let us then seek the causes 
as he sees them. 

1. The great cause is found in Germany, whose 
citizens immigrate to this country impregnated with 
socialistic notions. The class of socialists referred to 
by Dr. Strong are the anarchists of our country. It 
was said of them a few years ago that "when these 
men begin to carry out their threats we shall know 
exactly what to do with them; and the business will 
be speedily and thoroughly done." The recent exe- 
cutions in Chicago are a fulfillment of this prophecy. 



50 Christ and Our Country. 

Our own State authorities have shown themselves 
capable of averting the evil of anarchic socialism. 
We are not told that in Germany, the declared seat 
of socialism, there is a large number of Christian so- 
cialists much milder in their views of property and 
the rights of men than others. We are not told that 
what might be liberty here is considered socialism 
under such a government as that o£ Russia or the 
united monarchy of Germany. We are not told that 
the claims of democratic socialists in Germany are 
only claiming more of what our country boasts so 
much about. Dr. Strong draws a fearful picture of 
anarchism in this country, and then proceeds to give 
us statistics of the democratic socialists of Germany, 
to show how anarchism is increasing in Germany. All 
this is done in the name of socialism. What do these 
socialistic democrats in Germany demand? In a con- 
gress held at Gotha in May, 1875, a programme was 
drawn up by this same party, in which we find the 
following demands. I quote from that paper the fol- 
lowing: " The socialistic working-men's party de- 
mands as bases of the State: (1) Universal, equal, and 
direct right of electing and voting, with secret and 
obligatory voting, of all citizens from twenty years of 
age for all elections and deliberations in the State 
and local bodies; the day of election or voting must 
be on a Sunday or holiday; (2) direct legislation 
by the people, questions of war and peace to be de- 



Socialism as a Peril. 51 

cided by the people; (3) universal military duty— a 
people's army instead o£ standing armies; (4) aboli- 
tion of all exceptional laws, especially as regards the 
press, unions, and meetings, and generally of all laws 
which restrict freedom of thought and inquiry; (5) 
administration of justice by the people, free justice; 
(6) universal and equal education by the State, com- 
pulsory education, free education in all public places 
of instruction, religion declared to be a private con- 
cern." This represents the demands of the very class 
Dr. Strong is writing about. It would appear to 
most men who enjoy the privileges which these Ger- 
mans demand that the sooner such socialists triumph 
in Germany the better. In every reform a few men 
fly off at a tangent. This is true in Germany, and 
when these cranks are uncovered they flee to America 
to save their heads. Some of them do not succeed 
even here. The final triumph of democracy in the 
world is a foregone conclusion. Socialism in Ger- 
many is democracy in America. 

2. The second cause of socialism is found in " the 
drift toward individualism." This, as an existing 
tendency to-day, we most emphatically deny. There 
was a time, (and it was not very long ago) when indi- 
vidualism held a strong position in the opinions of 
civilized men; but such is not the case to-day. If 
there is no such " drift," then there can be no such 
cause for socialism. The old form of government 



52 Christ and Our Country. 

was fashioned after the nature of a tribe. Proper- 
ty, family, and life were lost in the tribal relations. 
This form of government projected itself far along 
the lines toward a civilized community. The rev- 
olutions and upheavals of the last two or three cent- 
uries have been due to the claims of individualism. 
It was the foundation of the Reformation. It was 
the basis of the French Revolution. It was the truth 
behind the "Declaration of Independence." 

In this country, at least, individualism has been 
satisfied by titles to landed estates, in the ownership 
of personal property, in the authority given to a wife 
to hold property as a feme sole, in the personal free- 
dom of all men, in a liberated press, and in a thou- 
sand other ways. The tide of things is changing. It 
is not moving backward, as one might suppose, but 
rising higher. The great idea in the minds of 
American citizens is the brotherhood of men made 
up of free individuals. Many facts go to show what • 
a wonderful hold this idea has on the minds of men 
in America, and even in Germany and England. 

No fact is more potent than the public schools. 
The hospitals, asylums, the enormous amount ex- 
pended in charities (public and private) — all have not 
individualism, but brotherhood, as their foundation 
stone. The legislation of our time is marked by the 
same thought. Protection to the suffering, the 
health of the community, temperance enactments, 



Socialism as a Peril. 53 

public buildings, State libraries, providing for a pure 
intellectual life for the young by excluding obscene 
literature from the mails are all the outcome of a 
broarder principle than individualism. The drift is 
toward the unity of these individuals having a com- 
mon life and destiny in the world. The tendency is 
toward Christianity realized in national life. A thing 
that has ceased to exist in this country cannot be the 
cause of any thing. 

3. " The prevalence of skepticism " is given as an- 
other cause of socialism. What Dr. Strong means 
by skepticism is atheism. Is it a fact that such 
skepticism prevails to any alarming extent? The 
periodicals of our time do not show as much skepti- 
cism as they did soon after the publication of the 
Darwinian theory. Even Herbert Spencer says, in 
speaking of religious sentiments: "Hereafter, as here- 
tofore, higher faculty and deeper insight will raise 
rather than lower this sentiment." Colonel Inger- 
soll and others of his school are following "the tail 
of a procession, whose head has turned back toward 
where it started." But if it is a fact that there is 
more skepticism now than heretofore, it is more a re- 
flection on the so-called Christianity of our times 
than it is a cause leading to socialism. 

The skepticism that preceded the French Eevolu- 
tion was due to the corruption of the Roman Catholic 
Church. Then infidelity was more universal in 



54 Christ and Our Country. 

France than it has been ever since, and more so than 
it can ever be again. It did not lead to socialism 
then, but it did lead to the overthrow of a heartless 
Church and to the banishment of an arrogant and 
ignorant line of rulers. The ideas of Rousseau, 
Voltaire, Diderot, and Frederick the Great, none of 
them atheists, made the French Revolution pos- 
sible. The very men, no matter what their individual 
characters, have contributed to the liberty of the 
nations, to the freedom of the press, to ennobling 
labor, and to the onward movement, indirectly, of a 
Christian brotherhood. If the Church of our time is 
formal, rich, proud, orthodox, and ignorant, the 
sooner it is dissolved the better. I know of no way 
so successful as to turn the skeptics to tearing away 
its falsities and crudities, its selfishness and igno- 
rance. It is not fair to charge to skepticism what 
ought to be set down to the account of present ec- 
clesiasticisms. 

4. "Equality h one of the dreams of socialism. 
It protests against all class distinctions." Does Dr. 
Strong combat such a notion? Then we might in- 
quire with some propriety: Is he an American citizen? 
Has he forgotten that " all men are born free and 
equal?" Can it be that the cry against slavery in 
the South has been lowered to that plane where it be- 
comes wrong and a cause of socialism when the same 
cry is produced by the weight of monopolies, resulting 



Socialism as a Peril. 55 

in a slavery compared with, which that in the South 
was mere child's play? If the principle of equality 
was right in 1860, and I believe it was, then I for one 
cannot see any thing wrong in it in 1888. It did not 
produce socialism then, and it will not produce it 
now. It did overthrow slavery in the South, and it 
may result in the destruction of certain classes in 
America. "This is a government of the people, for 
the people, by the people." 

5. Another cause is "discontent." The sure pre- 
cursor to an effort for the improvement of one's con- 
dition is discontent. No one expects a man to be con- 
tent with meager wages, poorly-clad children, and an 
uncomfortable home, when the world is full of life, of 
progress, of new ideas, and brightening hopes around 
him. It is a discontent that is perfectly natural, and 
means not socialism as most men understand it, but 
better homes, better families, better schools, better 
clothes, and a better civilization. A man that would 
be content under present conditions would be a mere 
machine and as heartless as a stone. We need more 
of such discontent. A railroad king can cut the 
wages of his employees ten per cent., and increase 
their want and suffering; and if a strike ensues, all 
the forces of a government are employed to suppress 
it, while people professing to love God and their fel- 
low-men hold up their hands in holy horror at such 
an enormity. These laborers are not always fools. 



56 Christ and Our Country. 

They see the increased productiveness of the very- 
road or factory that has cut their wages. The labor 
unions and strikes are a necessary result. Do not 
call a plea for home and wife and children and justice 
by the name of socialism. If so, in the name of God 
and humanity, we ought all to be socialists. 

So far we have only considered socialism as Dr. 
Strong has presented it — that is, in its most degraded 
and degrading aspect. Dismissing now all that he 
has said on the subject, for the simple reason that it 
falls short of the mark, let us ask : What is meant by 
socialism? The name is of recent origin, but the 
movement, under other names or under no definite 
name at all, is almost as old as history itself. Many 
definitions of it have been given. Some have ap- 
proximated it, but none have clearly expressed it. It 
has sometimes, notably in England, appeared as a 
great philanthropical movement whose aim was to re- 
lieve the suffering of men. It has appeared again as 
an economical question when merely dollars and cents 
were involved. It has appeared again as a purely 
selfish matter, when a division of property was de- 
manded. It has come to the surface lately not only 
in all these forms, but also in the broad attack made 
on landed estates. 

As a philanthropic movement there was a consider- 
ation for others in the upbuilding and relief of the 
suffering classes. Nothing was to be received as a 



Socialism as a Peril. 57 

reward by those who headed the movement. As an 
economic question it has had reference to a more 
equitable distribution of profits, so that neither capi- 
talist nor laborer would suffer thereby. This is illus- 
trated in the views entertained on the labor question 
by the democratic socialists of Germany. As a pure- 
ly selfish question, the condition of others has been 
lost sight of altogether and a division of property 
called for, which would only feed a temporary greed. 
In the last instance the annihilation of landed estates 
by individual owners has been asked for, and the 
transfer of all titles to the State. 

All of these views — and others might be given — pre- 
sent some one phase of socialism. There is a com- 
mon factor running through all. None of them are 
true, and none of them are wholly false. There is 
some truth in all — more in some, and very little in 
others. All seek — some in one way, others by another 
— to correct the social evils of the world. This is the 
common factor. All of these have failed or will do 
so. The purely selfish side, or the Henry George 
side of socialism, will surely go under because it con- 
tradicts all the laws of civilized life. No system, no 
matter what powers it may marshal to its support, 
can be sustained on the basis of pure selfishness or 
greed for gain. It has in it the element of destruc- 
tion. It will fail by virtue of its own weakness. The 
Henry George idea will go under because no stability 



58 Christ and Our Country. 

of any sort can be guaranteed to any people, apart 
from secure titles to land. It has in it neither the 
elements of success nor the grounds of a civilization. 
Nations become strong and are civilized in proportion 
as the fee to their land is absolute. Conditional titles 
to property are evidences of weakness. Social order 
and home life are dependent upon secure titles, and 
without these it is impossible to advance to any de- 
gree of civilized life. The people of this country are 
too much wedded to their homes and their home as- 
sociations ever to become wandering tribes or Arabs 
again. It is sheer nonsense to present such notions 
of civilization, and to offer the destruction of such 
homes as a remedy for all the woes of our social life 
in the present century. It cannot succeed. 

But what is the truth in socialism? It is an effort 
to correct in some way the evils and reduce the suf- 
fering of men. Dr. Gladden, in his book, "Applied 
Christianity," says: "Socialism aims fundamentally 
at the reconstruction of the industrial order." It is 
here that most suffering is found growing out of the 
present "industrial order." As long as socialism is 
confined to this object every man will admit the right- 
eousness of its undertaking; for every man, whether 
Christian or not, will admit that it is right to lessen 
suffering and to supply the real wants of men. It 
means this, when stripped of all its extravagances 
and false notions. Its causes are to be found in the 



Socialism as a Peril. 59 

latent sympathies and natural compassion of men for 
each other when they suffer. We naturally respond in 
our feelings to all suffering, to all wants unsupplied. 
This responsiveness is intensified when those who 
suffer feel for each other. Hence you have unions 
for mutual protection, and political parties to further 
the interests of such persons. There are labor unions, 
clubs, and organizations of various sorts to counteract 
all antagonistic forces. In the South to-day there 
are " Farmers' Alliances " to fight the unjust and 
ignominious "trusts" formed to buy up necessary 
commodities, like bagging for cotton, salt, sugar, etc. 
These may justly be classed communistic. 

There is commotion in the social world growing 
out of invidious distinctions or classes. There is 
friction between labor and capital. There are dis- 
turbances in nearly every department of life. There 
is no stability, no equilibrium. In military life caste 
has disappeared. In the United States the humblest 
citizen may become the "commander in chief of 
the army." In politics it has disappeared, for one 
of the most obscure families may give a President 
to the United States. In the labor system, in its 
practical workings, class distinctions have disap- 
peared, since all may work without disgrace. It is in 
social life where we meet with caste, with class dis- 
tinctions. Men occupy positions in society accord- 
ing to their wealth counted in dollars, and not accord- 



60 Christ and Our Country. 

ing to their wealth counted in merit. This produces 
caste in America, and causes one class to think that 
it is better than another which happens to be poorer. 
By the assumption of an unnatural power they deem 
ifc right to grow richer and consider it just to grind 
those who may be within their reach. A syndicate 
composed of men whose only aim is to increase their 
wealth will buy all the oil manufactured, or all the 
bagging made by the factories, and force the prices 
of these commodities up, and demand an exorbitant 
price, simply because they know that these things 
are necessary to consumers. So with railroads and 
factories. The rich dwell in mansions and move in 
high social life, while those less fortunate must con- 
tribute their substance in a reduction of wages to 
keep the rich in their positions. On one side there is 
profligacy, and on the other the keenest suffering of 
mind and body. Any movement which seeks to cor- 
rect such inequality, such social defects, is socialistic 
in its nature. 

This state of things grows out of the fact that so- 
cially this world has been but little improved. There 
have been reformations in religion, revolutions in 
government, and convulsions in the economic world, 
These have been attended with the downfall of cher- 
ished beliefs, with cruel wars and bloodshed, and 
with individual bankruptcy and national panics. Out 
of heresies, wars, and panics have issued the beauties 



Socialism as a Peril, 61 

of Christian love and fellowship, the liberties of the 
people, and the great commercial interests of the 
nineteenth century. 

The social world has never had a revolution. It 
differs little from what it was thirty centuries ago. 
There has been some improvement, but no reforma- 
tion as to form. The cause producing a governing 
class has changed, but not the class. In the last few 
years the trend has been toward social reforms. One 
of the signs of the times is the co-operative system 
established in some places in France and England. 
The sharing of losses and profits by capitalist and 
laborer brings about the destruction of caste. 

One thing is very certain: The present order of 
things cannot long exist. It is impossible. There 
will be extreme views and hurtful methods. These 
have already appeared. There may be a storm, but 
the sky will be clearer and the air purer after it is 
over. A man may fail now as a minister, and be 
worthless as a business man. He may not even have 
the qualifications necessary to fit him for the best use 
of civil liberty. All these things may be true for the 
want of brains. How easy it is for such a man to 
succeed socially ! Thousands of cases might be given. 
It is money that fits such a one for society. The 
time is coming when social life will mean more than 
dress parade and foolish gabble spoken in proper 
elocutionary finish. A moneyed aristocracy is of all 



62 Christ and Our Country. 

others the most damnable, because it is the most 
senseless and wicked. Social evils growing out of 
such conditions are to be corrected. The movement 
has already commenced, born out of the better sym- 
pathies of our natures. 

There is no other word so well fitted to express this 
movement as socialism. The plea for better times in 
Germany, the antagonism to the Russian monarchy, 
the cry against cheap labor in England, and the com- 
plaints made against cuts in wages in America, the 
revolt which is getting to be general against favored 
classes may be called socialism, and justly so. The 
fact that suffering exists — whether it be of body, mind, 
or spirit; whether it be from hunger, ignorance, or 
sin — is a sufficient guarantee that some time the evil 
will be corrected. The movement looking to the cor- 
rection of such evils has already commenced. It may 
be detected in the legislation of the day. Advanced 
thinkers are coming in close proximity to the truth. 
The Church in its broader sympathies is waking up 
to its importance. Nearly every country has its 
unions, its clubs, its societies — all organized to remedy 
the evil. There are outbreaks here and there which 
reveal the inner forces. These are volcanic erup- 
tions which show the concealed fires. All reforms 
have been ushered in with such manifestations. So- 
cialism is not the child of a day. It is moving on to 
manhood. It is not a soft, mild wind laden with sweet 



Socialism as a Peril. 63 

odors and balmy with flowers; it is a storm rushing 
on to its final goal. It is an idea whose ghost even 
will not down at the bidding of any people. It is a 
great movemnent in the universal life. It means the 
unity, the strength, the beauty, the power of man as 
a social being. Many petted institutions, built on 
pride and fostered by selfishness, may go down in the 
progress of things. This movement, with its obnox- 
ious qualities eliminated, exalted by human sympathy, 
and glorified by human compassion, will yet reform, 
bless, and crown our industrial and social systems. 
It is not a danger, not a peril, and will prove to be a 
blessing in the end. 



CHAPTER VIII 



The City as a Peril. 

NO argument and no statistics are needed to prove 
that the population of the city is increasing 
much more rapidly than that of the country outside 
of the cities. Professor Loomis, in " Modern Cities," 
gives us many interesting facts in regard to the enor- 
mous growth of the cities. He does not see any dan- 
ger in the growth of cities per se. " The formation of 
great cities is a normal result of a high development 
of human society." He shows that the decreasing 
death-rate, commerce, mechanical arts, manufactures, 
and the desire of men to be in multitudes are all 
causing the population of the cities to increase very 
rapidly. 

Another principle of great interest presented by Mr. 
Loomis is this: That the evangelization of the city 
means the salvation of the country. All the facts pre- 
sented by him are of a very hopeful nature until the 
fact is made known that the supply of churches is 
woefully out of harmony with the increased popula- 
tions. He seeks to account for this in many ways. 
Here are some of them: The crowded tenement-houses, 
the indifference of the inmates to religious influences, 
the mixed populations, or a population made up of 
(64) 



The City as a Peril. 65 

foreign elements. In New York, for instance, 80 per 
cent, of its inhabitants are foreign-born or the chil- 
dren of foreign-born parents; in Chicago, 87 per 
cent. In New York in 1840 there was 1 Protestant 
Church to 2,066 souls; in 1887, 1 to 3,750. It means 
only this: That the Christianity of the past fifty years 
has not been able to cope with the increase of popu- 
lation in New York and a few other large cities. In 
the whole country there has been a great increase in 
Church-membership. In 1788, for example, 1 in 30 
of our population was a Church-member; in 1888, 1 
in less than 5 — really 1 in 4} — is a Church-member. 
As 36 per cent, of the population is under ten years 
old, the figures show that more than half of adult 
American society is in the Church. "While there has 
been a decrease in church-buildings and religious in- 
fluence in New York City, there has been a wonder- 
ful increase in the United States at large. 

Dr. Strong sees dangers in the crowded streets and 
alleys, and in the prevalent saloon. We may now ask: 
Why is there a decline of moral influences and an in- 
crease of evil forces? It is not due to an increase of 
wealth, or to growing populations, or to crowded tene- 
ment-houses, or to the indifference of the poor, or to 
lack of church-buildings, or to foreign populations, or 
to skeptical opinions, or to the open saloon. Many of 
these things are good, some partially evil, and some to- 
tally so. Those that are evil must have been placed 



66 Christ and Our Country. 

under conditions favorable to their development. 
Skepticism is not a product of prayer, nor the saloon 
the offspring of righteousness. The existence of these 
evils is due to the imperfect notions and lifeless char- 
acter of the Church in the cities. This defective char- 
acter creates conditions favorable to the growth of 
many evils. Here is a straw that shows which way the 
wind blows. Mr. Loomis relates this incident: "The 
recent experiment of an enterprising newspaper re- 
porter, in a certain American city which has the rep- 
utation of being the model Christian city of the world, 
will not be forgotten. He donned the garb of a de- 
cent laborer, and in turn presented himself for admis- 
sion at each of the principal churches. At some he 
was treated with positive rudeness, at others with cold 
politeness. Only one or two gave him a cordial (and 
even then a somewhat surprised) welcome." A man, 
no matter how poor or how rich, does not often go 
where he is not wanted. This gives rise to indiffer- 
ence, to skepticism, and to irreligion generally. 

The greatest evil of all ( the open saloon ) is fast 
disappearing. It has cursed the race of men and 
blighted hope about as long as civilized people can en- 
dure it. In 1873 the popular vote of the Prohibition 
party was 5,608; in 1877, 9,522; in 1881, 10,305; in 
1885, 151,062; in 1888, nearly 3,000,000. This shows 
growth, but not all of it. Many counties, districts, 
townships, and cities have established prohibitory 



The City As a Peril. 67 

measures by local option; and this has been clone 
where the Prohibition party did not receive a vote. 
There is a growing conviction and an increasing dis- 
gust against the saloon and its political corruption. 
It will not be a peril much longer; for the better 
sense, the conscience, and the reason of the American 
people are against its continuance. The tide rises 
faster than did that against slavery. 

For the present we only say that the need is not for 
more liberality, more women workers, more lay help, 
more, church-buildings, more so-called ministers of 
the gospel, more complications in Church work, more 
societies, unions, and organizations, more religious 
literature, but the need is more of the Spirit of 
Christ, more of the Christ of Christianity. Cities 
and wealth ought to increase, and religion ought to 
increase along with them, while the evils ought to de- 
crease. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Criticisms of Late Methods. 

HEBETOFOKE our work in these pages has 
been directed mainly to the perils presented by 
those who take a different view of our country from 
that herein considered. We now direct the attention 
of our readers to the methods employed by most peo- 
ple who think about the questions that have lately 
forced themselves upon the attention of the American 
people. 

In our time it is a popular way for thinkers of all 
sorts to appeal to statistics. Any man who seeks to 
gain a hearing does so by statistics gathered for this 
purpose. This can be done on any side of all ques- 
tions. A life-insurance agent can show with great 
clearness the number of policies paid, the great ben- 
efits derived, and, when necessary, the stability of his 
own company by giving the number of companies that 
have gone under since the organization of his own. 
A railroad king can show a decrease in the work of a 
road if he wishes to depress its stock, or he can show 
an increase of money received if he wants to place 
his stock on the market. A hopeful Christian can 
show by one class of statistics the great increase in 

religious bodies, and conclude by saying that the 
(68) 



Criticisms of Late Methods, 69 

Church was never so prosperous as now. A less hope- 
ful one can show with another set of statistics, in an 
equally clear way, that sin is increasing; that want 
and poverty and dangerous classes are rapidly multi- 
plying. Dr. Dorchester can collect his statistics and 
show the wonderful strides which the Church is mak- 
ing in evangelizing the world, while with equal facil- 
ity Dr. Strong can show that the Church is not ac- 
complishing its mission because it fails to furnish 
money, church-buildings, and evangelists to the poor- 
er and more destitute classes. Statistics are the final 
arbiters of all matters of opinion these times. 

There is nothing wrong in knowing how many peo- 
ple profess Christianity or how many do not. As a 
matter of information this is all well enough, but 
when we begin to theorize on these things we are en- 
gaging in a wholly unchristian employment. Let us 
suppose that St. Paul had magnified the great num- 
ber of irreligious men, and had measured all the forces 
antagonistic to the Churches founded by him, would 
there have been one ray of hope, one encouraging 
fact to have sustained his converts? St. Paul was 
opposed by every known force and by a numberless 
host; but he never sought to encourage his converts 
by gathering the statistics of such men and forces. 
This was not his method at all. He believed that 
Christ came to save a world, and that opposition to 
him could net prevent him from gaining this end. It 



70 Christ and Our Country. 

was not a matter of figures or collected statistics, but 
it was a matter of a gospel which was " the power of 
God unto salvation." 

No matter how we study the question from Christ 
and his apostles, there are no such admonitions and 
warnings of impending dangers to the cause of relig- 
ion as are held out by many of our late teachers. 
There were admonitions and warnings, but not against 
the Church or Christianity. These were against 
those who antagonized the progress of the Church. 
Christ and these disciples saw that two forces were at 
work to accomplish the triumph of their cause. One 
was the living, progressing power of Christianity, 
and the other was the self-destroying power of sin. 
One was able to contend with all opposition, the other 
could not stand by itself, not to mention results when 
brought into conflict with Christ. If the Jews were 
formal, ignorant, proud, and narrow, they (the Jews) 
would reap the results. If the Gentile world was bar- 
barous, superstitious, and sinful, it would end in its own 
destruction, and not in the destruction of the Church. 
It will be found nowhere that the kingdom of God is 
founded upon numbers, or the triumphs of truth upon 
the addition of a column of figures. Arithmetic can 
establish arithmetical truth, but it is a very poor con- 
cern with which to calculate the value of character or 
the principles of eternal life. This may be an exalta- 
tion of the multiplication table, but it is of no possi- 



Criticisms of Late Methods. 71 

ble service to the truth. A count of heads proves 
nothing except a count of heads, and these are gener- 
ally wrong on the first appearance of great truths. 

Our late teachers seek to show us the dangers to 
our institutions and to our Christianity by increasing 
wealth, poverty, population, and cities. There may 
be danger to present institutions and to so-called 
Christianity, but there can be none to real Chris- 
tianity. There is danger to those who do wrong, 
whether they are individuals, cities, or nations. There 
was danger to Nineveh, but none whatever to the cause 
in which Jonah was engaged. There is danger to 
New York and Chicago and to our Government if 
they are corrupt, but none to the truth of Christiani- 
ty, and none to the Church declaring and living such 
truth. To talk about such perils to the Church, and 
to fill superficial minds with complaints and hopeless- 
ness, is to engage in a very unchristian task and is to 
pursue a course that is wholly unknown to those who 
feci the power of truth. 

Let us go back a little. If there ever was a time 
when our religion was in danger, it certainly was im- 
mediately after the death of our Lord, when his trust- 
ed disciples abandoned his cause in despair. This 
was just before its greatest triumph. If there ever 
was a time since then when the Church was in dan- 
ger, it was w r hen that Church was trailing its course 
through the Dark Ages. It never failed. All that ig- 



72 Christ and Our Country. 

norance, superstition, falsehood, slavery, and narrow- 
ness could do to overthrow it was done. But even 
from all this, phenix-like, it came out young and 
strong and beautiful. Let us take a later date. If 
Christianity could beat back the cold scrutiny of Di- 
derot, and withstand the biting sarcasm of Voltaire, 
and from the reign of terror in France enter upon its 
most thrilling conquests in England, America, and 
nearly all Europe, it is not to be concluded that it 
will now be overthrown because it has only about four 
hundred million adherents, and is antagonized by a 
few laborers and socialists in New York and Chicago. 
If in the beginning it had only a hundred and twen- 
ty disciples among the millions of earth, with every 
earthly power against even these few, yet suffered no 
defeat, but gained continual victories, is it to be sup- 
posed that now it is to go down with its nations and 
its millions? Such talk reflects on the truth of Chris- 
tianity, and is unworthy the belief or confidence of 
the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Such methods as are now employed will not do, be- 
cause the truth is above any set of figures, more pow- 
erful than any statistics, and more enduring than any 
provisional earthly government. We must reform 
our methods and seek anew "the truth as it is in 
Jesus." 



CHAPTER X. 



Christianity and the Survival of the Fittest. 

THE " survival of the fittest " is no longer a novel 
question or an imaginary principle. Most per- 
sons are familiar with this term as applied to animal 
or vegetable life. Here the fittest survives and the 
unfittest dies. The most hardy plant or animal will 
live where others of the same species not so hardy 
will die. It is a beautiful law of nature, and is illus- 
trated by all living, changing things in some phase of 
their being. It is intelligent selection of the best. 
In a more limited sphere we see it illustrated in the 
farmer selecting his seeds, or his lambs for breeding 
purposes, or in the business man in the selection of 
his agents and methods. Everywhere we find it at 
work, transforming as well as conserving the natural 
and business forces about us. 

Does it admit of a higher application than has gen- 
erally been made? Is it a Christian principle? We 
expect to show that the best illustration of this law is 
found in Christianity itself, and that it will enable us, 
in a proper understanding of it, to counteract all pes- 
simistic influences naturally produced by short-sight- 
edness and fear. 

Dr. Strong gives us some remarkable facts in re- 

(73) 



74 Christ and Our Country. 

gard to the growth of the Anglo-Saxons: "In 1700 
this race numbered less than 6,000,000 souls. In 1800 
the Anglo-Saxons had increased to about 20,500,000, 
and in 1880 they numbered nearly 100,000,000, having 
multiplied nearly fivefold in eighty years." These 
same Anglo-Saxons now possess "one-third of the 
earth." " This race is multiplying not only more rap- 
idly than any other European race, but far more rap- 
idly than all the races of Continental Europe." Here 
we have a statement of facts going to show plainly 
and unmistakably the superiority of the Anglo-Sax- 
ons. They have so far proven themselves the fittest 
to survive among the races of men. Wherever there 
is competition the Anglo-Saxon comes out successful; 
wherever there is conflict, he gains a victory; and 
wherever there is measurement of energy and thrift, 
he demonstrates his power to survive. 

Not only is this true, but Dr; Strong presents an- 
other fact which shows the peculiar fitness of the 
Anglo-Saxon to survive. He is moved by better mo- 
tives, growing out of better ideas, than any other race 
of men. The great idea of the Egyptian civilization 
was life; that of Persia was light; that of the He- 
brews was purity; that of Greece was the beautiful; 
and that of Rome was law. " The Anglo-Saxon is the 
representative of two great ideas which are closely 
related." One is civil liberty, and the other spiritual 
Christianity. Dr. Strong comes nearer to making a 



Christianity and the Survival of the Fittest. 75 

fit use of his facts here than anywhere else in his 
book: "If I read not amiss, this powerful race will 
move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and 
South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over 
upon Africa, and beyond. And can any one doubt 
that the result of this competition of races will be the 
'survival of the fittest?'" He seems to adopt the. 
surmise of Dr. Bushnell when he asks: "What if it 
should be God's plan to people the world with better 
and finer material? " Instead of adopting the princi- 
ple which he so clearly apprehends, he is hesitating 
— doubtful. He fears "materialism and atheism," 
" alcohol and tobacco." Dr. Strong's final conclusion 
is not that the Anglo-Saxon race will eventually sup- 
plant all others, bat that it is much milder: "In my 
own mind there is no doubt that the Anglo-Saxon is 
to exercise the commanding influence in the world's 
future, but the exact nature of that influence is as 
yet undetermined." 

The facts would allow us to go much farther than 
Dr. Strong has done. Inferior races have ever been 
supplanted by superior ones. The Finns, the Tartars, 
the Indians, the natives of Australia and New Zea- 
land, and the negroes of Africa have all been or are be- 
ing supplanted by stronger races. Most of these are 
nearly extinct. The tribes of Africa are being driven 
inland by English, Dutch, German, and French set- 
tlers. The aborigines will give place to the better 



76 Christ and Our Country. 

and the stronger. The fittest to live has survived, 
while the weaker has gone to the wall. The Anglo- 
Saxon race is to-day purging the world of its inferior 
races, and not only one, but all, must go down before 
its advance. The negro in America, the remaining 
tribes in Australia, and all other inferior tribes must 
give way to this providential arrangement of the races. 

Not only is this true in relation to other races, but 
it is also true that the same principle is at work in the 
Anglo-Saxon race itself. The lower and more degrad- 
ed parts of it will succumb to the higher and better. 
As a race it is eliminating from itself all hurtful qual- 
ities. This is done not by wars and bloodshed, but 
by schools and colleges, by railroads and telegraph 
systems, by printing-presses and pulpits. Communi- 
ties which reject these things must go under in the 
struggle for existence. So we see that there is a re- 
formative power in progress which would lead one to 
believe that some time the earth will be peopled not 
only with the best race, but with that race which 
has perfected and beautified itself by eliminating all 
hurtful qualities from its character. There is no 
ground for despair here, nor for complaints against 
the present order of things. 

The argument, however, is not yet complete. 
Christianity itself is an illustration of the "survival 
of the fittest." Among the world's religions it pre- 
dominates. It has supplanted Judaism. Greek, Ro- 



Christianity and the Survival of the Fittest. 77 

man, Persian, Druidical, and Norse religions have 
given way to its strength. It has demonstrated its 
power among all sorts of beliefs and notions about 
God and human life. Science and philosophy have 
each sought for pre-eminence, but the "Biography" 
of Mr. Darwin reveals the barrenness of the one, and 
the " Religion of Philosophy," by Mr. Perrin, shows 
the futility of the other. A man cannot advance with- 
out a religion of some sort; and that which guaran- 
tees the greatest hope and culture, that which as- 
sures him of the best life and civilization, and that 
which presents the purest ethic and the sweetest spir- 
it is best, and will always be selected by him. Chris- 
tianity has demonstrated its fitness in all these par- 
ticulars. Like the Anglo-Saxon race, it stands supe- 
rior to any one and to all other religions. If we right- 
ly read the facts and correctly interpret the Bible, 
the kingdoms of this world will one day become the 
kingdoms of Christ. In connection with Christiani- 
ty no other religion has any chance to survive. 

Another likeness to the Anglo-Saxon race is seen in 
the reformative power of Christianity in itself. The 
Church which has ever had the nearest approxima- 
tion to the truth has been preserved. As better and 
broader views have become known and accepted as 
life principles, the institutions rejecting them have 
gone down. A defunct Church and a forgotten creed 
would not be new things under the sun. Christiani- 



78 Christ and Our Country. 

ty itself is the survival of the fittest, and is preserv- 
ing in itself that which is best. It is a continual un- 
folding of better and more valuable principles in the 
evolution and perfection of men. 

The sum of our argument is this: We have a race 
(the Anglo-Saxon) surviving and improving; and a 
religion (Christianity) surviving and improving, and 
Christianity as the religion of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
Is there any possible ground for fear that either one 
or the other will fail? When we add to this a reform- 
ing in each, and each for the other, security becomes 
doubly sure. One is humanity at its best to date, and 
the other is religion at its best to date. Both reveal 
the purpose of God in the progress of things. One 
is destined to people the earth, and the other to re- 
deem, to glorify, and to perfect the Anglo-Saxons; 
and in doing this, to glorify and perfect all races. 



CHAPTER XI 



Missionary Movements and Methods. 

SOME one will perhaps now say, in view of our 
conclusion: What is the use of any missionary 
movement, or of putting forth efforts to save the hea- 
then world? If it be true that the fittest will live, and 
that those not so well fitted for life under advancing 
civilizations must be supplanted, what use is there in 
paying money to send the gospel to the unchristian 
world, or even to the crowded streets of the poor and 
destitute in our cities? It is our purpose to furnish 
an answer to these questions, and to show that the 
missionary movement is in perfect harmony with the 
conclusion we reached in the preceding chapter. If 
I did not so believe, then this conclusion would be ig- 
nored altogether; because Christianity is missionary 
in its spirit, or it is nothing. 

The reasons upon which missions are based may be 
stated as (1) practical and (2) philosophical. The 
practical deals with the facts, and the philosophical 
with the principles underlying the mission cause. 
I wish to follow this order in our treatment of the 
subject. 

1. The practical in missions may be divided into 

two parts: First, the good received by those sup- 

(79) 



80 Christ and Our Country. 

porting missions; and, second, the good received by 
those for whom the mission cause was instituted. Our 
first division presents a question rarely considered 
by thinkers in the cause of missions— to-wit, Does 
the Church sending out missionaries receive any per- 
manent good or substantial benefits from those to 
whom the gospel is sent? Our usual way of regard- 
ing the principle is this: That by our own efforts the 
inferior people are benefited — in other words, that 
all mission-work is gratuitous, in that no truth or in- 
spiration can be given by such people to the Christian 
community preaching to them. The cause is looked 
upon as one of the means by which the races and 
peoples of the earth are to be brought to the same 
level in civilization and religion. It is a great level- 
ing process. Such is not the case, and in the very 
nature of things cannot contain any truth in its state- 
ment. 

But let us consider the benefits derived by the 
home Church. The direct benefits derived are the 
broadening of its own views and the deepening of its 
own sympathies. To know the thoughts of even infe- 
rior peoples, the motives of their lives, and the basis 
of their civilization (if they have one) are ideas that 
cannot be otherwise than helpful. These ideas may 
be very crude and of a very indifferent sort, and yet 
they reveal departments of mind and life not known 
before. Nations differ as individuals do. Some one 



Missionary Movements and Methods. ■ 81 

idea, differentiating a certain people from all oth- 
ers, has been pushed out of due proportion. It 
has thence been rendered striking to the minds of 
others, and hence becomes apprehensible as a mental 
quality and a national characteristic. China, Japan, 
India, and Africa all have these ideas pushed out of 
due proportion, and most countries have built up civ- 
ilizations about these. It reveals to us some of the 
previously - concealed possibilities of human nature. 
It is useless to say that such ideas or these civiliza- 
tions are of no benefit to the home Church unless the 
adherents of such Church are presumptuous enough 
to conclude that they are in possession of all truth, 
and that this truth only needs dissemination in order 
to save the world. This is too selfish to be true. 
That the Church has been helped to understand its 
own Christianity by such facts is a proposition that is 
supported by every fact gathered from missionary 
fields in nearly every year of the Christian era. What 
wonderful helps have been the literature of Greece 
and Kome, the zeal of Persia, the arts from every 
country, the sacred books of the world! It would re- 
quire a volume to even name the benefits. 

The second benefit is the deepening of the sympa- 
thies of the home Church. Knowledge of the wants, 
of the sufferings among degraded peoples, where their 
wants are striking and their sufferings acute, are cre- 
ative of responsive sympathies in the home Church. 



82 Christ and Our Country. 

Such a Church not only learns to feel for the heathen, 
but also gains the additional lesson of learning how- 
to feel for those in want and suffering about them. 
An evidence of this is seen in the fact that home 
missionary w r ork has resulted from foreign missions. 
Work among strangers is sure to eventuate in work 
among friends. These results are directly perceivable. 
The indirect results are many and valuable. The 
knowledge of many languages has been obtained 
through missionaries. The discovery of new tribes, 
new nations, new territories has led to a broader no- 
tion of man, of his world, of commerce, and of his 
mind. Through the influence of missions civilized 
nations have come to a knowledge of other people's 
best thought, their religious notions, their modes of 
worship, and the intensity of their struggle for di- 
vine things, and, above all this, the conceptions that 
these "strangers to Israel" have entertained about 
God and his providence. All these things show how 
the human mind has sought for sure ground upon 
which to found its empire. All sorts of religions, 
from polytheism to rationalism, have been revealed 
through the labors of missionaries. These all show 
that man, even in his humblest estate, cannot live 
without a religion; and still further, how wise men 
among them have sought " if haply they might feel aft- 
er God, and find him." The knowledge of these other 
religions (some crude, some mystical — all limited and 



Missionary Movements and Methods. S3 

insufficient) reveals the transcendent beauty and glo- 
ry of Christianity as compared with them. Whatever 
truth is found in them (and there is much) is fully pre- 
sented in Christianity. There are " undiscovered re- 
mainders " in our own religion that can never be de- 
termined except through the knowledge of some hea- 
then religion, where the idea sought has been abnor- 
mally developed. Hence it appears that the Church 
at home is doing missionary work not simply to save 
others, but to save itself. It needs to fill out the true 
measures of its life. 

The second reason for missions is found in the 
benefits conferred upon the heathen. These are two- 
fold: (1) A better knowledge of their own religion, 
and (2) their own religion fulfilled in Christianity. 
It is not to save them from hell that our gospel is 
preached to them, for this end will be gained if they 
use the best light they have, if they never hear of cur 
gospel. They who have no law are " a law unto them- 
selves." There is no question here, if disciples of 
the Lord Jesus Christ believe their Bible; and if not, 
then they have nothing to do with the question, A 
heathen can be saved as well without a Bible as can 
the man with it who does not believe it. 

The benefits derived by heathen men and women 
are beautifully illustrated by St. Paul's preaching -at 
Athens. He found the people religious, overrelig- 
ious — not "superstitious," as our version has it. 



84 Christ and Our Country. 

They had a very elaborate system. They had built 
altars to almost every conceivable divinity, and still 
were not satisfied. They then erected one to "the 
Unknown God." St. Paul did not condemn their 
idols or altars, but preached to them that which was 
wanting in their own religion — viz., knowledge of the 
"Unknown God." His whole purpose was to show 
that Christ was what they needed to fill out this one no- 
tion : " Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him de- 
clare I unto you." Christ was not the contradiction of 
their religion, but the supply of what it lacked. There 
were two benefits resulting— a knowledge of their own 
religion, so soon as they had a better light in which 
to see its defects, and a knowledge of Christianity it- 
self. St. Paul was benefited by receiving what the 
Athenians had, and they by receiving what he had; so 
that both parties were blessed in giving and blessed 
in receiving. 

The same idea is also illustrated by Peter and Cor- 
nelius. Peter was a narrow-minded Jew until he saw 
Cornelius, and Cornelius was a narrow-minded hea- 
then until he saw Peter. Both received what their 
former conception of religion lacked. This rule is 
not different to-day. Men are provincial in their 
thoughts, religions, and beliefs, as well as in their 
language. This provincialism needs to be broken up 
and preparation made for a broader and better life. 
We need heathen life, and it needs our life to make 



Missionary Movements and Methods. 85 

both complete. These benefits are practical, and the 
reasons for missionary zeal growing out of them are 
practical. Now we come to 

2. Philosophical reasons for missions. These grow 
out of (1) individual life and (2) universal or world 
life. One is a man in his place; the other is human- 
ity in its completeness. The great question which 
Leibnitz had to deal with in his time was how to 
harmonize variety with unity, how to preserve the 
individual, and yet hold to an all-inclusive unity. In 
Germany the question has been up for settlement 
again and again. Hegel, among her great minds, has 
reached a " unity in variety " as a principle that ex- 
plains the fact of being. In religion more than else- 
where we need this same principle — the preservation 
of the individual — although thrown into a generaliza- 
tion which contains all. The philosophical reasons 
for missions are intimately connected with this prin- 
ciple. As a Church, Christianity is to save the indi- 
vidual, also the national life in which that individual 
is found. 

The first reason is clear to all, for every Church or 
organization is seeking to build up its membership by 
the conversion of individuals. We need not pursue 
this idea farther. 

The second reason is not so clear, since the idea of 
the survival of the fittest is connected with it. Why 
send the gospel to the heathen if this is a true law 



86 Christ and Our Country. 

and is at work among them? This may be answered 
briefly by another question: "What has become of all 
the tribes, peoples, and nations to whom the apostles 
preached? If the survival of the fittest has not been 
at work here, then what has? It is true that those 
people of the best race, <and who have been truest to 
the life and spirit of Christ, have been favored by 
Providence. The strongest have lived, and the weak- 
est have died. But are these people lost? Are these 
nations dead? Not at all. Their life, their virtues, 
their knowledge have been transmitted from genera- 
tion to generation, from age to age, and from race to 
race ? until the life, knowledge, and virtues of all times 
are krgely crowded into the Anglo-Saxon race of to- 
day. The life of the world now is the life of the 
world that has been — reproduced and glorified by the 
faith which looks for a complete reproduction of the 
life of the Son of God in humanity. 

Let us look at the same idea under another form. 
There is a transforming power at work in the world 
by which the life and spirit of inferior beings are 
transformed into the life and spirit of superior beings; 
so that, when the individual of a race ceases to live as 
such on the earth, his life is transformed into the life 
of the nation; and when a nation, as an individual, 
ceases to exist, its life and spirit are transformed into 
the life and spirit of the nation supplanting it. When 
it ceases as an idividual, it continues in the complex 



Missionary Movements and Methods. 87 

life of the all. Suppose that the gospel is preached at 
Athens. Individuals are saved. Is this the end of it? 
No. The world needs the life of Athens. As a fact, 
her song, her art, her ideas of the beautiful, her phi- 
losophy, her civilization, and her religion have a wider 
life to-day than they ever did in their own individual 
history. That life has been transformed into the life 
and spirit of our own times. Athens herself is saved. 

Suppose that the Israelitish nation was destroyed 
and its cities laid waste. Is it dead? Not at all. Its 
life, character, purity occupy a larger territory to-day 
than ever before. There has been a loss of individ- 
ual qualities, but a transforming of virtuous qualities 
into the universal life of the Church and of the world. 
Israel is saved. 

Suppose that missionaries are sent to China, a coun- 
try peopled with an inferior race, who have an inferior 
religion. Knowing at the time that the race will be 
supplanted and its religion cease, ought we to with- 
hold our missionaries? No; for individual Chinamen 
will be saved. Then we have its life, its virtues, its 
all for humanity in the time to come. China will 
cease as an individual, but China will never be lost to 
the world. So with any other people or country. 

In all that we have said we have adhered to the 
facts as they appear to us. The philosophy of mis- 
sions is the teaching of the Bible and the belief of 
the world. The richness and beauty of perfected hu- 



88 Christ and Our Country. 

inanity can be accounted for in no other way. St. 
Paul touches the great principle in his Epistle to the 
Hebrews: "And these all, having obtained a good re- 
port through faith, received not the promise: God 
having provided some better thing for us, that they 
without us should not be made perfect." This may 
be said as truly to-day as at any other time during 
the past eighteen centuries. Last of all, not to cum- 
ber our pages with useless quotations, we find John 
saying of the City of God: "And the nations of them 
which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the 
kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor 
into it." 



CHAPTER XII 



How Christianity Reforms and Saves. 

IT is not our purpose to consider the philosophical 
question involved in the conversion of a man, nor 
do we wish to confine to individual cases what is said. 
This has been done too much already by the Church. 
We have not considered the broader question of how 
a community or a nation is to be reformed and saved. 
The Church in the past has spent most of its force in 
working for individuals, and has done too little in 
building up the community life. It is said: "The 
Church must have nothing to do with politics, with 
commerce, with civilized life generally. It must look 
after men, and not measures." One of the results of 
such a process is seen in the restricted sphere the 
Church occupies to-day. She is shorn of her strength, 
because deprived of her privileges by a false notion 
that sacred and secular things are not to be mixed. 
Another result is seen in the great numbers deprived 
of Church privileges; another in the large number 
who are indifferent to religion. If we use the Church 
to save individuals simply, then as a matter of course 
we will work to save the best individuals. Whenever 
this is the case the indifference on the part of the 
Church to certain classes will produce indifference in 

(89) 



90 Christ and Our Country. 

them. Hence the results as we find £hem existing 
to-day. 

Mr. Loomis gives us some interesting facts con- 
nected with evangelistic work in London and other 
places. While these facts are interesting, he uncovers 
more destitution and want than his remedies can cure. 
From his showing there has been a great increase in 
the number of workers, in the employment of women, 
and in liberality, but all these fail to make much im- 
pression on the suffering thousands in London and 
New York. Hospitals are built, asylums are founded, 
evangelists paid, literature distributed, chapels built, 
and yet these numbers increase and their suffering is 
multiplied. There is a deeper question than any of 
these things can answer or remedy. 

That question concerns the reformation of commu- 
nities. How can it be done, and what is the power? 
It can be done by real Christianity, and the power to 
do it is the real Christ. The first question springing 
up for our consideration is this: Is there any wrong 
involved in suffering and poverty? No one can say 
that there is, and yet the sympathies of all believing 
Christians are aroused by these things. Is it not bet- 
ter for these sufferers to remain as they are until bet- 
ter conditions of character are supplied? We think 
so, for the following reasons: 

1. The old dictum, " Whatever is, is right," is one 
of the neglected truths in our age. That God rules 



How Christianity Reforms and Saves. 91 

the world is not more than half believed. We rarely 
ever hear one assert that present conditions are suited 
to present circumstances. If people are poor, then 
poverty is best for them. If there is want, suffering, 
evil, then these things are best for them. Not that 
such conditions are best; but in their present mental 
development, their social and moral condition, it is 
best for them to have the life they do. A man sud- 
denly delivered from these conditions by fortune or 
accident is of no possible good to himself or to any 
one else. One under the yoke of poverty and want 
in Europe — one who feels the oppression of his own 
government, because it interferes with his appetites 
and passions — if he escapes to America, where there 
are better provisions for his wants and less restraints 
placed about him, will perhaps develop into an anarch- 
ist or a rebel to all government. 

2. Such poverty and suffering are disciplinary in 
their very nature. Instead of evil resulting from 
them, only good can come out of them. To bestow 
wealth upon such classes, or even to gratify their 
wants, would result in moral ruin. Poverty and suf- 
fering create the condition out of which comes an ef- 
fort for their relief. It throws a spirit out of equi- 
librium to want. It is the only way it can be done. 
The severest calamity that can befall a human being 
is to take one's ease and to know no want. There is 
neither growth nor effort in such a condition. 



92 Christ and Our Country, 

3. It is God's way of building up and saving a world. 
It could not be done without such want and suffering. 
It is to no purpose to say that such an idea is heart- 
less, and that whoever advocates it shows a want of 
sympathy for the poor. We need to study as never 
before the facts connected with this complex human 
life of ours. A recent writer — Eev. James F. Biggs, 
in Christian Thought for April, 1888— has given us a 
very broad and comforting view of this question. It 
is really refreshing to find some honest word in all the 
bedlam of complaints that has lately gone into Amer- 
ican ears about the wants and sins and sufferings of 
thousands in Europe and America. Hear him: " Kise 
high enough, and you will see that the facts do not 
contravene the theory that those facts are marshaled 
by a divine hand and serve a divine purpose; you 
will see that in this universe (without taking account 
of future punishment) evil is medicine, not poison, to 
God's children; that chastisement is education, not 
banishment. We are in no danger of underestimating 
the existence of evils. Morning and evening is our 
attention called to these hideous sores and frightful 
vices of humanity. Illiteracy is amazing, Jesuitism 
confident and aggressive, Mormonism is insolent, skep- 
ticism is rank and unabashed, Sabbath-breaking is 
deplorable, intemperance ruins soul and body, while 
various types of socialism and anarchy threaten the 
very existence of civilization itself; yet even so, the 



How Christianity Reforms and Saves. 93 

cure is not to be found where the fool is looking for 
it, but where the prophet found it." Here is not only 
the statement of a fact, but also the revelation of a 
moral principle at work in the world, certain and sure 
in its results. It will correct the evils existing, and 
present facts which go to show that the correcting rod 
is being applied. To furnish statistics, and nothing 
more, to give numbers and not be able to read the 
underlying principle, is to destroy hope in Christian 
workers. 

One of the prophets foretold a time when " a nation 
shall be born in a day." The time was coming when 
the Church would seek the reformation and salvation 
of a nation, and not simply the individuals of a nation. 
That time has forced itself upon the Church of to- 
day. There must be a change of method. Science 
has taught us a universal kinship, not alone with men 
but with all things; philosophy has revealed the truth 
that there are channels through which the thoughts 
of all men flow alike; our missionary efforts have 
given us some notion of a universal life; commerce, 
navigation, the steam-engine, telegraph systems, rail- 
roads, printing-presses, etc., have caused the nations 
" to see and flow together." We now hear of human- 
ity, world life, solidarity, universal brotherhood, and 
other like expressions, showing that such thoughts are 
finding a lodgment in human minds. 

It has required nearly six thousand years of suffer- 



94 Christ and Our Cotmtry. 

ing and want to get the selfishness far enough out of 
the best of our race for them even to think of a uni- 
versal brotherhood, and of a religion capable of re- 
forming and saving a world. Christ came to save a 
world — not a part of it, but all of it. Want and suf- 
fering and — whether we believe it or not — skepticism, 
and doubts are helping in the great cause. Chris- 
tianity is to save individuals and the masses. The 
individual is to be endued with a nobler and a purer 
spirit, and the masses furnished with a healthier en- 
vironment. 

The gospel usually preached might continue for a 
century, and but little impression would ever be made 
on the masses, so long as their environment was un- 
changed. Any people with poorly-cooked food, cheap 
literature, crowded tenement-houses, and small wages 
would make very poor Christians if they were ever so 
fortunate as to be converted. To greatly improve these 
things without placing higher aspirations in their 
minds and purer inspirations in their hearts would be 
hurtful to them. The excess of freedom suddenly 
thrust upon the ignorant negroes of the South had a 
baneful influence upon them. It was more than they 
were fitted to receive. Spain at one time could not 
receive a code of laws provided for it by Napoleon, 
because they were not fitted for so advanced a govern- 
ment. Two powers are to be considered — one at work 
in the man and the other at work in his environment. 



How Christianity Reforms and Saves. 95 

To unduly stress either will prove a damage where 
good is intended. These two forces must be regarded 
in all Christian work, which may be summed up as 
follows: 1. There must be such a presentation of 
Christ to the individual as to inspire hope. 2. Such 
a change of environment as will guarantee a healthy 
social and religious culture. And until this is done 
it is best for the want and the suffering to remain. 

The question of the relation a laborer sustains to 
his work and his wages, and its probable influence on 
him, is reserved for future consideration. 



CHAPTER XIII 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 

BEFOEE we proceed to consider the needed Chris- 
tianity of the present it is necessary to some- 
what clear the ground of all proposed remedies for 
existing evils. The better way perhaps to do this 
would be to utterly ignore all such remedies on the 
ground that they have already proven inadequate. 
This is an easy and effectual way to get rid of all 
known theories and plans for reaching and saving the 
masses. But let us be more careful and particular in 
their consideration. 

The great power relied upon is preaching the gos- 
pel. Such a remedy would be effectual provided the 
gospel is preached. That there is much so-called 
preaching every one is willing to admit, but a few at 
least would hesitate before deciding, if they were 
forced to give an opinion on the question, as to wheth- 
er or not the gospel is preached. Some few might 
look at this state of facts. There are thousands of 
preachers, and only a few of them who appear to be 
successful in impressing the world that they have 
any message for it. There are whole Churches some- 
times, with thousands of men and money, that the re- 
igious world would hardly miss if the whole Church 
(96) 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 97 

was exterminated. There are hundreds of preachers, 
in nearly all of the Churches, that would never be 
heard of at all if they did not advertise their Sunday 
performance under some flippant name, or else do 
some silly thing by which people are attracted to them 
to see what sort of a new fool is making this noise in 
the world. It therefore becomes a very serious ques- 
tion as to whether the world hears much real gospel 
or not. 

In the South — and I suppose at the North also, 
judging from certain developments — there is an an- 
tagonism to fresh, vigorous Christian thought for pres- 
ent emergencies. 

Some here and there have been invited "to step 
down and out " because they dared to antagonize old 
notions of things in their search for the truth that 
was to bless and save. There is one singular fact con- 
nected with all such teachers. The testimony is uni- 
versal that they succeeded in reaching all classes of 
men — the very thing that is a cause of complaint in 
the Church to-day for its failure to do. There is 
something behind all this, and that something is the 
progressive character of Christianity. It is not a 
system of doctrines, but a life; not an institution 
eighteen centuries old, but a living presence always. 
This life is ever taking on new forms, and presenting 
itself under new phases. When allowed to do so it 

has established its fitness for all conditions of life 

7 



98 Christ and Oar Country. 

and all grades of civilization. Every age brings out 
some new feature of it, and places it, in the estimation 
of men, on a higher plane. The difficulties of to-day 
grow out of the fact that the Church is attempting to 
fit eighteenth-century Christianity to nineteenth-cent- 
ury life. The Church in many places is doing more 
to preserve its orthodoxy than it is to save the world. 

Skepticism has ever been counteracted by advanced 
thinkers in liberal Churches, or such as were regarded 
revolutionary by their contemporaries. Materialism 
received its hardest blow from James Martineau, an 
English Unitarian. Much of the flimsy philosophy 
palming itself off as truth was uncovered by that arch- 
heretic, Theodore Parker. The kingdom of Christ 
has had to depend largely for its defenders upon its al- 
leged enemies. This only shows that something more 
ought to be done to grasp the idea and fitness of 
Christ for to-day. The great need is for fresh, living 
thought in this far-advanced century. 

To say that the poor will not hear the gospel is to 
confirm the opinion that they have no gospel to hear. 
When the Saviour was on the earth " the common 
people heard him gladly." The same thing was true 
with his immediate disciples. All classes heard them, 
and believed. It was a gospel to all men who heard 
their words. 

It will not do to say that more pastoral and evan- 
gelistic work is needed, for such work has been won- 



The Seeded Christianity of the Present. 99 

clerfully increased, but not so rapidly as the destitu- 
tion. It will not do to ask for more church-buildings, 
when those already built are not filled. It will not do 
to charge all our ills to the influence of foreigners, 
for the Gentile world heard the gospel as long as 
there was a gospel to hear. It will do no good to 
write warnings against the Catholic Church, for if it 
failed with Luther, I do not see how it can succeed 
now. All these warnings and complaints fall short of 
the mark. There is fear of a crisis, of a dissolution of 
the present order of things. This may be true. It 
may take a revolution to convince the Church that 
Christ proposes to save a world. This little grain of 
wheat may have to die to be multiplied. One thing 
is certain: the spirit of Christ is forcing itself upon 
our age, and it either means salvation to the masses 
or the revolution of existing institutions, and after that 
its triumph. There may be a crisis to the Churches, 
but there can be none to Christianity. 

The building of more churches, hospitals, asylums, 
and charitable institutions will be of little avail un- 
til Christ is truly preached. These will never remedy 
the evils that exist, but only furnish a refuge for such 
as are not able to bear longer the burdens produced 
by their environment. Something else must be done. 
All these remedies have been tried, and failed or only 
resulted in a temporary good. 

We now turn our attention to the main question. 



100 Christ and Our Country. 

What is the needed Christianity of the present? It 
must be such a Christianity as elevates the individual 
and improves the conditions under which he lives; or, 
to make a little broader statement of the same idea, 
it must be such a Christianity as will save the masses 
and purify their environment. Both of these objects 
must be accomplished, or neither will be. To improve 
a man's surroundings without at the same time im- 
proving him, is to curse and not to bless him. To 
elevate him — which means to give him a more sensitive 
nature, a more penetrating mind, and a higher notion 
of spiritual life— and then leave him in his want and 
degradation, is to intensify his misery. 

Suppose that this plan were pursued among some of 
the suffering denizens of our cities. Let some of our 
missionary zeal provide sensible lectures on interest- 
ing topics, as has already beeu done, and also a better 
literature, such as would elevate their notions of man 
and religion — scientific and literary books and peri- 
odicals. This is being done in the provisions made 
for public libraries. Let the tract business go. It is 
stale. Then provide better-cooked food by teaching 
them how to cook it. Then provide better tenement- 
houses and warmer clothing. Let your "scum and 
filth," talked of so much, get better houses over their 
heads, better clothing on their backs, better-cooked 
food in their stomachs, healthier blood in their veins, 
and better ideas in their heads, and you will be carry- 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 101 

ing to them a gospel that they will love. I do not 
mean for Churches and missionary societies to do 
these things for them, but to help them to do these 
things for themselves. Then send your minister to 
them to tell them that Christ is the life which has 
made such things possible; that he is the basis of 
their better ideas and the cause of their improved 
conditions. Would they hear that sort of a gospel 
and receive that sort of a salvation? Perhaps they 
would; perhaps they would not. This plan grows out 
of the present order of things, which is unchristian in 
its very nature, so far as the laboring classes are con- 
cerned. To this phase of the question we now turn 
our attention. 

Let it be understood that present conditions of the 
masses are best until there is a change of environment. 
We now consider the sort of life by which most in- 
dustrial classes are surrounded. The idea we have 
thrown into a proposition would be about this: That 
any cause which does not look to brotherhood as its 
end is ungodly, and will perish. 

Any unprejudiced mind can soon find enough to 
produce the conviction that selfishness is at the bot- 
tom of most of our great fortunes and great indus- 
tries. Every thing is made to bend to the accumula- 
tion of large individual fortunes. The owners of 
factories, railroads, machine-shops, etc., live in well- 
arranged and richly-furnished homes. They have all 



102 Christ and Our Country. 

that heart can wish from an earthly stand-point. Their 
employees live in poorly-ventilated, crowded, unfur- 
nished homes. They see their children at a tender age 
placed in the factory or shop as a matter of necessity 
to piece out their meager wages. In the homes of the 
rich are educated, cultivated families. In the others 
there are destitution and want If there is depres- 
sion in the prices of articles manufactured, there is 
a cut in wages to meet the depression and to keep 
up the bank account of those who own such factories. 
If the tariff on a certain article is reduced ten per 
cent., the manufacturer cuts wages to meet it, and con- 
tinues his own income. 

For the favored class there are elegant churches, 
schools, colleges, and society. For the other there 
is perhaps a chapel with an ignorant preacher, no 
schools, no colleges, and no society. One class regards 
the laborer as his inferior, and that he ought to be 
thankful that he even has a place where he may eke 
out a mere subsistence. The laborer regards his em- 
ployer as an autocrat, a swindler, and one capable of 
all manner of evil. He finds himself continually ask- 
ing the question: " What is the difference between us? 
By birth we are brothers, but by fortune we are 
strangers. I am his slave, and he is my master be- 
cause he happens to have a few thousand dollars. 
My children are as good as his, and they are entitled 
to just as good an education and advantages as his. 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 103 

They have as much sense, and are by nature as well 
fitted for life as the children of the wealthy. Nature 
gave us all the same inheritance, and the accidents of 
fortune have made me the slave of my equal." Some 
such thought as this is forever running through the 
minds of the laboring classes. Why should ninety- 
six per cent, of the people in the United States spend 
their labor and lives to feed the greed of four per 
cent, of their fellow beings ? 

That the accumulation of money is the great end of 
all industrial pursuits no one will deny. Oar busi- 
ness world is founded upon selfishness and not upon 
the most good to the greatest number. A man invests 
his money in a factory or railroad. The object is not 
to give employment to those who wish to work, but it 
is to build up his own individual fortunes. When 
such factory or railroad has been equipped, if it is 
necessary then to increase his money in proportion to 
his growing greed, he will grind his employees as long 
as they will stand it. They continue to work with de- 
creasing wages, because they have nowhere else to go. 
Is this state of things natural? 

Then again we have syndicates — a class of capital- 
ists who make a business of buying up all the neces- 
saries of life. A few men will combine their millions, 
and buy all the oil that can be produced. This places 
them where they can force up the price of oil, and 
then they complacently unload their supplies at a 



104 Christ and Our Country. 

price which enormously increases their capital. A few 
men will buy the products of the bagging-factories, 
and Southern farmers are robbed of thousands in mar- 
keting their cotton. The sugar-refiners sell all that 
they can produce to a syndicate, and the consumers 
are forced to pay the prices which are regulated not 
by supply and demand, but by the dictation of a few 
men who own it all. 

What is at the bottom of all such things? Nothing 
in the world except selfishness. It is not greed of 
power or honor, of civilization, but greed for money. 
The four out of every hundred are grinding the ninety- 
six. Not only keeping them poor, but actually mak- 
ing them poorer every day. The most fearful cry — 
that which meant more perhaps than any other — on 
the streets of Paris w T hen the French Ke volution was 
fairly ushered in was the cry of the people for " bread." 
Selfishness ends in its own destruction. 

What sort of movements do we see now, and what 
is their meaning? There are labor unions, farmers' 
alliances, clubs, societies — all organized for the pro- 
tection of laborers against the oppression of greed. 
Strikes are inaugurated, boy cots are declared, and 
many methods have been employed to beat back the 
selfishness that is not satisfied with legitimate interest 
on invested capital. There is commotion everywhere. 
The issues of a new day are fast forcing themselves 
upon our time. The present state of things cannot 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 105 

and should not remain much longer. Quietly but 
surely a revolution is being ushered in — a revolution 
that means the change of our social and industrial 
relations. Already the thunder of the advancing hosts 
may be heard. Prophets of a better time have already 
appeared, and their words are sounding through the 
earth. Broader views of the Church have been made 
known, and a more unselfish arrangement of trades 
and industries have been tried and found successful. 
W. H. Freemantle, in " Bampton Lectures for 1883," 
has filled every page of his wonderful book with these 
broader and better and more Christ-like ways of do- 
ing things. Dr. Mulford has given us a wonderful 
book, " The Nation," whose teaching is all against the 
selfish notion we have of commerce, of trade, of in- 
dustrial life. Hear Freemantle's conclusion on these 
topics: "Bat we cannot rest satisfied with the pres- 
ent methods of trade, in which the interests of labor 
and capital are constantly at variance, and wages are 
rarely raised except by the brutal machinery of a 
strike." And again: "It has been pointed out that 
the chief concern of a national Church must be the 
elevation of its weaker members. The existence of 
pauperism and of prevailing poverty, in contrast to 
the progress of wealth, must be made to weigh upon 
men's consciences, and especially on those of the rul- 
ing classes; and no effort, no change that can be sug- 
gested, can be too great if it results in the wiping away 



106 Christ and Our Country. 

of this reproach to our Christian State. It is not mere- 
ly by deaiing with pauperism and with poverty in their 
actual manifestations that this reproach will be wiped 
away, but much more by such a direction of political 
interests as will operate through law and administra- 
tion, for the removal of the evil, and further the 
framing of laws not merely so as to make men ' equal 
before the law,' but so as to afford the poor and the 
weak the uplifting help which they need." * 

Dr. Mulford gives us very much the same conclu- 
sion: "The conflict of the nation is still borne on to 
the close of history in the antagonism to a false civili- 
zation. It is the conflict with a material civilization 
which w r ould build on the earth a Babylon. It is as 
the nation yields to the spirit of a Babylon that there 
is the loss of its freedom and its moral being, f " " The 
goal of history is in the fulfillment of the highest 
political ideal. It is the holy city; it is the new Jeru- 
salem, the end of the toil and conflict of humanity." £ 

I have merely given the conclusions of these two 
careful students of history and Christianity — one 
looking at the Church from a European and the other 
from an American stand-point. They both see and 
know that the present order of things is antagonistic 
to Christianity, and they both know that the friction 

* " The World as the Subject of Redemption," p. 352. 
f "The Nation," p. 416. 
t Idem, p. 418. 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 107 

of the present shows the strength of forces at work 
to produce a higher civilization. 

I can only indicate some of the principles that will 
come more and more into the Church work of the 
future. • It is a Christian duty to vote for good men. 
It is a Christian duty to see to the enactment of bene- 
ficial laws. I do not mean by lobbying— this is one 
of the ways by which oppression is continued — but by 
instruction, by conscientious work, by elevating men 
so that they will enact no other sort of laws. We 
see how popular opinion has been educated during 
the past ten years on the temperance question. To 
pass a prohibitory law, without public sentiment to 
see it executed, is to place a dead law on our statute- 
books. The same process is going on in the discrep- 
ancies existing between labor and capital, between 
those who live to make money and those who work to 
keep from starvation. The heads of men are con- 
vinced that it is wrong, and soon their consciences 
will be awakened to do away with the wrong. Chris- 
tianity is taking hold of the national life, and brother- 
hood, as we have shown before, will be the ground of 
motive. 

There is little danger of a military revolution, but 
there is certainty of a revolution mightier than any 
that has been known in the past. Two forces are now 
at work to produce it: 1. Co-operative industries. 2. 
The ballot-box. 



108 Christ and Our Country. 

1. In England, France, and Germany there has been 
a demonstration of the value of co-operative indus- 
tries. In England there have been co-operative so- 
cieties looking to the purchase of raw material and 
the necessaries of life. With the meager wages re- 
ceived these societies have greatly advanced the wel- 
fare and comfort of the laborers. In France the 
scheme of Leclare, at Paris, has demonstrated the 
fact that a community founded on the idea of mutual 
gains and losses by capitalists and laborers is free 
from strikes and complaints, and is conducive to the 
happiness, protection, and progress of all concerned. 
For the particulars of this plan see Miss M. Hart's 
little book, in which she gives a full account of it. In 
Germany M. Schulze has demonstrated the helpful- 
ness and utility of a co-operative system of banking. 
The "Encyclopedia Britannica," under the head of 
"Co-operation," makes this statement: "The numer- 
ous cotton-factories in Lancashire, on a basis of small 
joint-stock shares, yielding in some cases large divi- 
dends, might almost be considered as great an exam- 
ple of co-operative production as any effort of the kind 
in France. The operatives have a large stake and 
much advantage in these factories; but since the spin- 
ner or weaver does not necessarily work in the fac- 
tory of which he has a small proprietary share, these 
joint-stock establishments are probably to be regard- 
ed more as investments of the savings of the opera- 



The Needed Christianity of the Present. 109 

tives than as co-operative societies." The opera- 
tives in a factory care little for their work or the 
manner of its doing beyond the mere wages of a day, 
or the prospect for promotion to better wages. To give 
the same operatives an interest in the gains and a 
share in the profits would be to give them an interest 
not alone in their wages, bat in the care of machinery, 
buildings, manner of doing their work, and a greater 
effort for greater production. This means mutual 
help, and hence brotherliness as its foundation stone. 
Statistics of such co-operative societies are rarely 
seen, because it is not to the interest of those who are 
accumulating vast sums under present conditions. 
This is Christianity in the form of mutual help, and 
is producing wonders wherever it is allowed to enter. 
2. The second great force at work is the ballot-box. 
Men in civilized countries will soon cease to shoot 
each other with " grape and canister." The warfare 
will be at the ballot-box. In times past — and in some 
places now — the paid bosses could march the opera- 
tives of a factory or the employees of the railroad to 
the ballot-box and vote them unanimously for their 
special candidate. This day is fast coming to a close. 
The labor unions, the various societies are all under 
complete organization, and they will go to the polls 

to vote for men and measures that they think condu- 

• 
cive to their interest. A volley of printed tissue-paper 

may prove more destructive to present measures than 



110 Christ and Our Country. 

any cannonade that was ever conducted against ad- 
vancing powers. It took bloodshed and cruelty to 
dethrone the royalty of France, and teach an arro- 
gant Church its duty. It will take the united efforts 
of the sufferers at the ballot-box to teach the mon- 
eyed aristocracy of our country that this is a govern- 
ment for the people by the people. 

We do not know what else will be brought into the 
problem, what hidden powers may be in the com- 
ing Church. This much we can see at present: That 
the present order of things is passing away, and that 
Christianity, in the form of "brotherly kindness," is 
coming more and more into notice as a workable prin- 
ciple. This is the needed Christianity of the present 
time. 

I close with this statement: So long as we have 
nothing but a lifeless creed, a system of doctrines, and 
look mainly to the reformation of individuals, and not 
to their environment, we may expect want and sin 
and degradation to increase, and whenever we preach 
and practice a living, present, universal Christ, and 
provide better conditions for men by appeals to their 
manhood, by development of popular sentiment, and 
by enactment of useful and merciful laws, we may ex- 
pect these evil things to disappear. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Christianity's Real Antagonisms. 

WE have reached the point in our subject where 
we may consider the real antagonisms of our 
Christianity. These are to be found not where they 
are generally looked for — that is, in the outside world 
— but in the organized Christianity of the present time. 
The Church has suffered more from its friends, or 
its supposed friends, than it has from its declared ene- 
mies. "A man's foes shall be they of his own house- 
hold;" and this is where a Church's foes are to be 
found. On our side of the issue we would place the 
statement of the Christ that "the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." So long as an organization 
of Christians has been true to the spirit and life of 
Christ, so long have outside influences — antagonistic 
and otherwise — ministered to its growth and strength. 
This is an incontrovertible fact. 

But what are the perils of the present that the 
Church has to fear, in the estimation of many of her 
friends ? Where do they find dangerous antagonisms ? 
What are some of these perils? Increased wealth of 
individuals, poverty of the masses, indifference to re- 
ligion, skepticism, Komanism, Mormonism, socialism, 

anarchism, rationalism, social corruption, and illib- 

(111) 



112 Christ and Our Country. 

erality. "Where are most of these troubles to be 
found? Outside of Protestant Christianity. Here 
are the veritable " gates of hell," if we are to believe 
our new school of pessimistic thinkers. Against such 
the truth can know no defeat. Any tyro in historical 
knowledge could easily find a parallel case, where 
some like ism or antagonistic influence had come in 
conflict with the truth and suffered defeat; and some- 
times such influence has been backed by the power of 
an empire. 

Gamaliel was a wiser man, even opposing Chris- 
tianity, than many of to-day who feel called to the 
defense of "the faith which was once delivered to the 
saints." "Refrain from these men, and let them 
alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it 
will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot 
overthrow it." He was wise enough to see that if 
God was in the movement, even with its few disciples, 
it would triumph. So it has. Now if God is in Prot- 
estant Christianity, it cannot be overthrown; and if he 
is not in it, all the ecclesiastical and secular forces on 
the earth cannot sustain it. The whole question is re- 
duced to this : Has Protestant Christianity the elements 
of success in itself? Where are its perils? Let us 
consider this question. 

It is one of the provinces of life to get for itself a 
body, and to renew that body by accretion, by the 
addition of new elements. The tree is the body of 



Christianity 1 s Ileal Antagonisms. 113 

a hidden life in itself. This life not only weaves 
a body, but also gains new elements with which to 
feed its wasting tissues. If this process stops, death 
is the natural result. The life of a man has built up 
a body, and the same life is ever renewing that body 
by fresh material. If this process is hindered, the 
body wastes away, and soon dies. The life of the 
mind takes on a body of thought; it lives in its 
thoughts, is clothed by them. If from any cause 
this thought process is discontinued, death to mental 
life is the natural result. So Christian life takes on 
the form of a body. This body reflects the nature of 
its life toward God and man. The membership must 
be renewed by individuals, and its spirit by fresh 
thoughts. Let this process cease, and we have for- 
mality without life, orthodoxy without truth, and a 
Church without Christ. 

Another thing is true: So long as there is advance 
movement, fresh growth in right directions, there will 
always be a full membership. Hence the question, 
with all its superficial notions and embarrassing suppo- 
sitions eliminated, resolves itself into this: Is Protest- 
ant Christianity advancing along right lines of thought 
and life? This much we know:. Where this relig- 
ious movement has been left to take its course ac- 
cording to the spirit of Christ there has been pros- 
perity; and where this process has been arrested 
death has been the consequence. 



114 Christ and Our Country. 

A few historical facts will show this. The Koman 
Catholic Church had arrested this process prior to 
the Reformation. Its zeal expended itself in meting 
out punishment to heretics, and not in carrying life 
to the world, even when that world was fall of sin 
and death. The result was the triumph of a move- 
ment which had such life in it. The Catholic Church, 
as it then existed, is dead. It could not live a twelve- 
month now, with its barbarities, its ignorance, its per- 
secutions, and its orthodoxy. Nobody cares for its 
edicts, and nobody fears its anathemas. That is gone 
for all time. 

Under the Wesleyan movement in England we wit- 
ness the same state of facts. Mr. Wesley had mind 
enough to unburden the Church of much of the lum- 
ber contained in the "Articles of Religion," and to re- 
duce its formal worship to naturalness. The growth 
of Methodism has been more marvelous than that of 
any Church in the history of the world. There was 
life in the movement. At the same time there has 
been the death of the Church of England, as it then 
was. The same state of things can never be renewed 
or brought back. The religious world has outgrown 
all such notions. Dissenters are free to express their 
opinions of religion in England to-day. No persecu- 
tions grow out of antagonisms to the Establishment. 
We witness none of the disgraceful trials and ques- 
tionings rife in the time of John Wesley. The old 



Christianity's Real Antagonisms. 115 

Church is doing well to keep its own head above the 
water, without using any of its energy to oppose oth- 
ers. In both of these instances life has made itself 
felt in those cases where there was closeness to 
Christ. 

The Catholic Church suffered because of internal 
diseases, and so did the Church of England. The 
dangers were within, and not without, as we would be 
led to conclude by the enumerated perils of the pres- 
ent time. Therefore the search for dangers should 
be in the Church of to-day, and not in the world. Is 
there a living, progressive movement? Are the ideas 
about God and his relations to men ever becoming 
clearer by the accretions of new thought and new life? 
This is the question to which we need an answer. 

Growing out of principles brought to light by the 
foregoing facts, there are some general statements 
that may be made: 

1. If a Church fails to reach the masses, the defect 
or cause is not to be found in the masses, but in the 
Church. 

2. If the gospel as preached fails to attract hearers 
and to save men, the cause is not to be found in the 
men, but in the gospel preached to them. 

3. If men are excluded from the communion of 
Churches because of their progressive thinking in 
their efforts to attain unto the truth; the process of 
life has ceased to go on in that Church. 



116* Christ and Our Country. 

4. If there is a general belief in a Church that there 
should be a return to old times and old notions, that 
Church is publishing its own death-sentence. It will 
be said of Modern Israel, as it was said of the ancient 
one: "Thou hast destroyed thyself." 

5. Whenever there is more reliance placed in pas- 
toral visiting, church-building, lay help, music, ritu- 
al, or succession (either apostolic or ecclesiastical) 
than there is in the truth and the power of that truth 
to conquer, such a Church is dying. 

6. Whenever there is an effort to found an ecclesi- 
astical organization upon some rite or ceremony, some 
peculiar dogma, some definite Church polity, then such 
a Church is already dead. It is separated from the 
love of God and "the truth as it is in Jesus." 

7. Whenever there is great stress placed upon or- 
thodoxy, then there is little stress laid upon the truth. 

Whatever of progress is shown in the events of the 
present time, whatever builds up the waste places, 
and brings life to the dying and help to the suffering, 
has in it the true elements of Christianity, no matter 
under what name the movement is carried on. Life 
not only forms a body fitted to its own peculiar uses, 
but has in itself the power to accommodate itself to 
other and newer uses. It preserves itself and con- 
serves itself until finally its mission is accomplished. 
Wherever there is a living movement to better men 
there is found the Church of God, whether it be in a 



Christianity* s Ileal Antagonisms, 117 

public meeting, a legislative hall, a Senate chamber, 
an executive mansion, or an ecclesiastical body. It 
may be in one. It ought to be in all. 

What the masses of men want is not more pastor- 
al visiting, more church buildings, more evangelists, 
more women and laymen, but more men to preach 
a living, saving, present, nineteenth-century gospel. 
To preach dry creeds, or demonstrate the truth of 
formal rites and ceremonies, will not do; to dogma- 
tize about Christ will not do; to show forth the histo- 
ry, scholarship, triumphs, and beauties of Christianity 
will not do; to establish by an undeniable and per- 
haps a Biblical argument that a man is a member of 
the true Church will not do; to preach the Christ of 
the last century or any other past century will not do; 
but to preach Christ, living and present, saving and 
blessing, enlightening and crowning, will do. 

Long ago the old Psalmist wrote " Fret not thyself 
because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against 
the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut 
down like the grass, and wither as the green herb." 
How many of our new teachers have the same sort 
of confidence in the truth? How many believe that 
righteousness will win and that unrighteousness will 
lose in the struggle for life in this world? There is 
so much sensationalism, so much clap-trap, so much 
superficial nonsense called preaching, so much so- 
called Christianity, and so little of the true Christ, so 



118 Christ and Our Country. 

much chaff and so little wheat, that it is no wonder to 
me that some men lose hope for their country and 
Church. Jesus is our Example, our Teacher. He 
never said a sensational thing, never made a pastoral 
visit, never pandered to the opinions of the better or 
poorer classes, never employed questionable meth- 
ods. He relied for conquests solely upon the great 
truths he uttered. He was never so left alone, was 
never so popular as to lose sight of the truth. He 
felt that it would triumph. When degraded and for- 
saken, when suffering and dying, it was for the truth. 
He was its incarnation, its fullness. All who heard 
him felt it, knew it, understood it. He was the truth, 
he was life; and whatever Church or people possess 
the same life "the gates of hell" shall not prevail 
against it. The perils are within, and not without. 
There are none without. They are all within. 



CHAPTER XV. 



The Historical Trend. 

ALL along I have hinted at an idea which, for 
two reasons, I now propose to elaborate. 1. 
For the sake of clearly setting forth a truer philoso- 
phy of events in human life. 2. Because the ar- 
gument of all pessimistic thinkers is thereby over- 
thrown. Heretofore we have studied individual cases 
and principles; we now come to a broader generaliza- 
tion, in which we find the power that is to mold the 
human race into the likeness of God. 

The great question for us to consider now is this: 
Do all events further the cause of God in the world? 
Do they tend to fulfill his purposes? We answer 
that they do. To this answer there can be but two 
objections. One is that it destroys liberty and leads 
to fatalism, and the other is that evil is helping the 
cause of righteousness. One man will say: How can 
a human being be free if all events help to accom- 
plish the purposes of God? Another will say: If sin 
results in carrying out the will of God, then it is not 
so bad after all to sin. Let us study these probable 
objections. 

The difficulty in the question grows out of our ideas 

of liberty. Liberty does not mean for us to do as we 

(119) 



120 Christ and Our Country. 

please, even when we please to do right. It does not 
mean " the power to choose," even when our desires 
force our minds to choose what is best. It does not 
mean the use of the will in any direction. It carries 
with it something of all these, but is more than one 
or all of them. Liberty means acting in harmony 
with the highest powers of our natures of which we 
are conscious. It means that a man who compre- 
hends the best possible life and is living it out the 
best he can is free. He is made free not by legal en- 
actments, or by the repeal of chafing statutes, or by 
choosing the best, or by refusing to be led into sin, or 
by rational beliefs, or by the controlling power of his 
will; but he is made free by the truth. A man may 
be the slave of any one of these social or mental qual- 
ities; his demand for freedom may amount to lawless- 
ness, and his power to will may grow into stubborn- 
ness. It is not the will or the reason or the heart 
that needs freedom. It is the man, the whole man, 
that needs to be free. Nothing but " the truth " caii 
make him free. When the man is free then all the 
qualities — mental, physical, and spiritual — are free. 
That man is free who acts in a Christward direction. 
As he utilizes and appropriates the life and spirit of 
Christ, to that extent he is free. It is not a question 
of will or of law, but a question of life, of conduct, of 
manhood. It is bending all things to the higher as- 
pirations and profoundest thoughts connected with 



The Historical Trend. 121 

his nature. The animal is free when it masters the 
material and molds it into form. The mind is free 
when it masters the animal in onr natures and trans- 
forms its energies into ideas. The spirit is free when 
it uses its mental forces to perfect and beautify char- 
acter and realize its yearnings and inspirations. The 
lower plane of this is moral life, the higher is a di- 
vine life. The greatest possible attainment for a hu- 
man being is to come to a consciousness of a divine 
life. This is sometimes called "the realization of a 
divine idea;" and by others, "the fruitage of earth- 
ly existence;" and again, "the consciousness of Spir- 
it." They all mean very much the same thing. Free- 
dom is therefore progressive in its nature. It is the 
harmonious action of a man, with his known powers, 
faculties, and energies. When a new possibility is 
realized it falls into harmony with this general law of 
being. Only a perfectly developed man can be a per- 
fectly free man. It lies from unfreedom in the pos- 
sible to right movement in the actual. The anarchist 
is not free, because in his antagonism to all law he 
necessarily destroys all rule of moral or political con- 
duct. The good citizen is free to some extent by obe- 
dience to the laws of his country. Legal restrictions 
help him to live a better life. These restrictions may 
create friction in his nature at the beginning, but con- 
tinuous good conduct under these restrictions brings 
him to where they are no longer felt. He who lives 



122 Christ and Our Country. 

the divine life is free, because this is the whole pur- 
pose of his nature. Its restrictions and limitations 
hedge him off from the hurtful and dangerous. He 
may feel these restrictions and limitations at first, but 
soon his conduct under the highest law of his nature 
reaches that point where his action is without chafing 
and where he feels none of their force. There are no 
restrictions from man Godward. He could move in 
this direction forever, and never meet with opposition. 
The effort to move in any other is counteracted by 
many antagonistic forces. There are restrictions and 
limitations on every hand. This is religious freedom. 
It contains in itself all that any one could ask in solv- 
ing the problem of human life. 

The world has been moving in this direction. It 
has been moving toward a consciousness of its best 
life. The spirit of man has worn many shackles and 
been chafed by many chains. By better knowledge, 
purer examples, clearer notions of life, and nearer ap- 
proximations to the divine idea, one by one the shack- 
les and chains have fallen and are falling away, and 
many have found the object of their search in the life 
of the Son of God. Such enter into a sphere whose 
radius can never be measured, where there is room 
for the full expression of the life that is in them. 
There is no danger of such persons ever coming into 
conflict with that Providence or wider sphere where 
"all things work together for good." The trouble 



The Historical Trend. 123 

with us is that we narrow our view to a few privi- 
leges, and call it freedom. What we need to do is to 
get a view so broad that it will compass the whole of 
the best life, the all of the Christ-life, and call that 
human freedom. It will be following in his methods, 
thoughts, and purposes — nothing more, nothing less. 

Holding this view of freedom clearly in our minds, 
let us advance to that sphere beyond the purely hu- 
man — one which transcends the idea heretofore given. 
There is a wider sphere for the exercise of authority 
in directing all human events to one end, and that end 
is the perfection of the human race. Our solar sys- 
tem moves in wonderful harmony within its own 
sphere, but beyond this suns and systems are mov- 
ing with equal harmony to a common center. The 
one does not hinder the other. So the sphere of the 
individual is transcended by that of humanity, and 
this in turn by the Divine. Each is harmonious in 
itself, and all with God. 

When we rise high enough we can see all things 
bending to one end. Eeligions, histories, peoples, civ- 
ilizations, disasters, epochs — every thing gravitating 
toward one idea, toward one purpose. There may be 
shoals and rapids, eddies and backward movements, 
sluggishness and mighty plunges in the river, but it 
is moving on toward the ocean. There may be con- 
flicts, cruel wars, persecutions, dark ages, French rev- 
olutions, national turmoil, ecclesiastical downfalls, an- 



124: Christ and Our Country. 

archism, poverty, degradation, even the destruction of 
present institutions and Churches, and siu of a thou- 
sand degrees of blackness; but there is a current, a 
power moving under all these and in all these toward 
the righteousness and happiness of the human race. 
The notion of freedom does not and cannot interfere 
with this broader and diviner Providence. 

We come to the other objection: Can sin help the 
cause of righteousness? Is there any benefit in it? 
Its result in the sinful is death. It is never life to 
them. It is the absence of such a thing. A man can- 
not live in his appetites without destroying himself. 
He robs his body of life, his mind of thought, and 
his spirit of hope. Body, mind, and spirit become 
the slaves of his appetite. Soon all is gone. Such a 
result is awful, and fully merits all the warnings ever 
uttered against it. It destroys in this world and in 
all worlds; for where the habit can be thrown from a 
human life when it has mastered every power of that 
life is more than any one has ever been able to tell. 
Under such conditions eternal suffering becomes an 
awful fact. 

Now the question arises: Is there any benefit in 
such a life? Is there a Providence that overrules it 
for good. Yes. Such a ruined life is a finger-board 
which points to the dangers connected with such a 
way. If one man is killed by a cross-beam in a rail- 
road bridge because he persisted in standing on top 



The Historical Trend. 125 

of a train moving under it, no other man knowing this 
fact will place himself in like position. The death of 
a father by strong drink has often resulted in the sal- 
vation of his sods. Nearly every community furnish- 
es examples. Men are not apt to go where the dan- 
gers have been demonstrated by the death of others. 
This is some good, but not all. 

A man's career as a sinner and its results demon- 
strate the forces against him and the strength within 
him. A locomotive moves grandly over its steel rails. 
We do not calculate the strength of forces operating on 
it and in it perhaps, but when we see it wrecked — a 
motionless, broken thing, helpless and powerless — we 
begin to measure these forces acting on it and in it as 
it moved. When we see the wreck of a human life — 
a body diseased, a mind from which thought is gone, 
a spirit from which hope has fled, broken, distorted 
by its unnatural course — we begin to measure the 
strength of opposing forces and inner powers. We 
get better ideas of human life and better opin- 
ions of human nature. We know little of physic- 
al organisms and their functions until they become 
diseased either in ourselves or in others. The sick- 
nesses of the human family have led to a knowledge 
of all the organs, parts, and functions of the human 
body. Such knowledge is necessary to provide for 
the health of the human race. Sin has led to a knowl- 
edge on the negative side, at least, of the human spir- 



126 CJirist and Our Country. 

it, its inspirations, its hopes, and its energies. Such 
knowledge is necessary to the righteousness and hap- 
piness of the human race. It looks so to me. 

It is necessary for a State to punish as well as to 
honor and protect its citizens. It is necessary, be- 
cause without such punishment no civilization is pos- 
sible. The State, in executing its laws against inju- 
ries to persons and property, is by such action pro- 
viding a better life for its law-abiding citizens. The 
purpose to be accomplished by all such government 
is the welfare of all. There is room in such a State 
for political freedom; this is obedience to its laws. 
There is room in it for sin; that is disobedience to its 
laws; The rewarding of the good and the punish- 
ment of the criminal both result in accomplishing the 
ends of good government. The wider providence of 
the State is seen in bending all things to good citi- 
zenship. The punishment of evil-doers is a warning 
and a help to others who are capable of doing the 
same thing. So is the providence of God. The sins 
of the world are made to contribute to the divine pur- 
poses of it. So that we have freedom and " a power 
in the world which makes for righteousness." "All 
things work together for good to them that love God, 
to them who are called according to his purpose." 

The broader and more hopeful view is this : We are 
living in a universe no smallest fact of which but will 
contribute to its beauty and glory in the end. God 



The Historical Trend. 127 

is no longer standing apart from his universe in the 
thoughts of men; but he is near to us, is in us, among 
us, over us, and around us — reigning, directing, con- 
trolling, loving, and overruling all things for the good 
of those who see in the world a Divine Idea and in the 
human race the image of God. No complaints or 
fault-findings can have a place when such is the view 
of the present order of things. 



. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Our Country. 

THEEE is much needless apprehension in regard to 
the future of our country. There will be more 
energy and money in the future than there is to-day. 
There is nothing to fear in either. There is nothing 
wrong in them. If the wealth of the United States 
increases a thousand-fold, it is only evidence that 
Christ is succeeding and that his kingdom is coming. 
More money means more wants to supply, and in- 
creased wants mean a higher development in the 
character of our people. 

If the manufacturing interests of our country should 
increase — as late statistics show that they must and 
will — it means more men to work, more clothes to 
wear, more comforts to enjoy, and more blessings to 
receive. The character of a country is never stable 
until it furnishes employment for its laborers. The 
increase here means the final adjustment of present 
difficulties. 

The agricultural products of the United States will 
greatly increase because there will be more people to 
feed and clothe. This is itself a guarantee of a perma- 
nent civilization. Mining has hardly commenced yet 
in comparison with what it will be a few years hence. 

(128) 



Our Country. 129 

New uses are found for mining-products every year. 
The forests are failing, but the mountains are rich in 
an inexhaustible supply of the very elements de- 
manded by our advancing and ever-growing civiliza- 
tion. Inventions will continue to be made and labor- 
saving machines manufactured until after awhile the 
forces of nature, like steam and electricity, will be 
made subservient to the wishes of man in doing his 
work. Physical labor and animal suffering will be 
done away with, and all the pains of "man and beast" 
will be forgotten. The workmen of the future will 
be brain-workers, because the conditions under which 
we live are giving them the right use of their minds. 

Our cities will multiply in number, and our large 
ones become larger. This is as it should be. There 
is an attractiveness, a growth, and a social and men- 
tal development connected with life in the city that 
the country knows nothing about 

The population will increase to many millions, and 
not be the worse for the increase. There is enough 
American leaven in our climate, our institutions, our 
customs, our national life to leaven the whole lump. 
There will be, as there has always been, outbreaks 
every now and then. These are electric shocks which 
clear up and render healthy our national atmosphere. 
No worse calamity can befall the country than that of 
1860, when to the superficial observer the United 
States as a republic was gone for good. And we are 



130 Christ and Our Country. 

about over a trouble in which millions were engaged, 
and have left a stronger union than ever before. 

The Church in America will finally get hold of the 
truth which is in accord with our free institutions. 
Many are already doing so who are members of dif- 
ferent organizations of Christians. This truth may 
involve the overthrow of much that we possess to-day, 
and which many may look upon as valuable ; but what 
of it, if it results in the final elevation of America's 
millions? 

There is a patience to be learned from the progress 
of things intended to be permanent. The earth was 
not built in a few thousand years, or the human race 
produced in a single century. Civilizations are the 
outcome of past struggles, and religion the product 
of the ages. We must be patient and take a broad 
view of things. When we are on the plain every little 
hill obstructs the view, but when we reach the mount- 
ain-top the little hills disappear, while the wide-ex- 
tended landscapes give us visions of beauty that make 
us think of God. A little anarchism and socialism 
become dreaded perils when we are down among them ; 
but rise high enough to get a view of the great world- 
movement, and these little things disappear, while in 
it all and out of it all will be revealed the beauties 
and the glories of an infinite Father's love. 

There are many things that will be greatly reduced 
in the future. The drinking-saloon, with its ruinous 



Our Country, 131 

associations, will soon be a thing of the past. There 
is a tenderer conscience, a more profound conviction 
of its evil influences every day. It involves not dol- 
lars and cents, but life and character. It is evil, and 
only evil. It is ruinous alike to the customers and 
the dealers. It has received solemn warnings from 
pulpit and press. The whole nation is alive in oppo- 
sition to it. It will not be able to stand the pressure 
much longer. 

Illiteracy will decrease in the future. Better sys- 
tems of education, public schools for all, compulsory 
education, endowed colleges and universities, are all 
at work reducing it, and these will continue to increase 
in number until every son and daughter of our coun- 
try can be free from the greatest curse that exists. 
This advance movement will be felt in every part of 
our country. Its wealth, its leisure, will be given to 
furthering the cause of mind and to freeing our peo- 
ple from ignorance. A literature purely American 
will be the outcome of such work, while philosophy 
will bless us with its power, as it has Greece and Ger- 
many. 

There will be less piety of the emotional sort in the 
coming time. We are already beginning to learn 
that true religion is finding our way back to God and 
working in harmony with his purposes. We have 
had enough posing in religion, enough of glorified 
self, enough of sycophantic saintliness, enough of the 



132 Christ and Our Country. 

heaven for another world. We need actual work, real 
sainthood, and a sure-enough heaven here. It is 
time for brains, for mind, to begin the problem of 
understanding this life and its relations to God. The 
hereafter will take care of itself. 

We have had a moneyed aristocracy, or that princi- 
ple which elevates families in proportion to the thou- 
sands possessed. That aristocracy — as all the rest 
have done — is dying by its own rottenness and selfish- 
ness. It does not take long for the money to change 
hands, and away goes the foundation upon which the 
whole structure is built. There is in the United 
States a growing demand for men of character. The 
generals and the millionaires must have something else 
besides a name and money to recommend them. Our 
country is slowly coming to realize that genius and 
talent are not confined to any class, and that in every 
son she has a nobleman. Manhood now is worth 
more than palaces and crowns. This notion will in- 
crease until the nation is exalted and the " meek in- . 
herit the earth." 

Some are apprehensive that railroads and landed , 
monopolies will produce great suffering and want in 
our country. A few men will own the railroads, and a 
few more will own the land. There has been very little 
tendency in this direction, and what has been has met 
with opposition in labor unions, co-operative associa- 
tions, protective societies, strikes, and rebellion against 



Our Country. 133 

all such oppression. There is no ground for defend- 
ing many of these things. This much we can say: 
This country is not Ireland, nor can you make an 
Ireland out of it. 

From every quarter we may see that there is noth- 
ing in our country or its possibilities to be afraid of. 
Here in our own land will live the happiest people 
enjoying the best civilization that the world has ever 
seen. 

One word more on this topic. The remedies pro- 
posed by Dr. Strong and others for the ills of our 
country are in perfect keeping with their conception 
of the perils. Dr. Strong places great reliance in the 
liberality of the rich. I do not. He seems to think 
that the Evangelical Alliance is the power that will 
yet carry hope to the masses. He is now (April, 1888) 
traveling through the South in the interest of the Al- 
liance, and presenting this view of the question. I 
have no confidence in any theoretical system for 
reaching the masses. The Good Samaritan way is 
the only one in which it will ever be done. It is 
the Christ way, and it is simply to go and help the one 
in want. I have but little confidence in any of Mr. 
Loomis's remedies. The whole question will be solved 
by that comforting yet subtle philosophy underlying 
the life of Christ which helps because it must help. 
A bird sings because it has a song and must sing it. 
A man endued with the thought and spirit of Christ 



134 Christ and Our Country. 

will have helpfulness in him, and it will come out. 
So what we need at last and all the time is the Christ 
of to-day. Then all our alliances, evangelical work, 
Churches, and schools will be glorified by his pres- 
ence and power. To think more of Christ is to be- 
lieve in him more, and to work for him more in build- 
ing up and blessing our fellow-men. 



CHAPTER XVII 



Conclusion. 

THE purpose with which we commenced these 
chapters was to increase the hope of those who 
studied the questions that naturally arise in our day. 
I can but trust that the same object will be gained as 
W. H. Freemantle gained in his " Bampton Lectures." 
The view which has opened out these lectures is cal- 
culated to fill us with an immense hope. It is impos- 
sible for those who take a narrower view of the aims 
of Christianity to be frankly hopeful. They see that 
the secular fields of human activity, which to them 
and to their highest aims appear hostile, or at least 
indifferent, are winning upon men more and more; 
while Christianity, conceived merely as a system of 
worship, doctrines, and beneficence, is barely holding 
its ground; and consequently we hear from them 
little but expressions which imply complaint or re- 
sistance, or a timorous wailing for what is coming. 
This timorous attitude of later Christianity contrasts 
sadly with the enthusiastic hopefulness of its first pro- 
claimed. "VYe must restore the element of hope." * 
We now seek for the element of hope in the life 

* " The World as a Subject of Redemption," p. 370. 

(135) 



136 Conclusion. 

about us. We seek it in the evil and the good, or the 
negative and positive sides of human life. 

1. The darkest things that can happen in this world 
life of ours are not entirely without hope. There is 
no reason for despair where sin is strongest. Paint 
the picture ever so gloomy, it must be seen in the 
light or not at all. Let the clouds be ever so dark 
and stormy, there is a sun shining behind them. He 
that studies the picture by using the light he has to 
bring out its gloom will have no hope. He that looks 
no farther than the clouds will despair. He that has 
narrowed Christianity to lit present difficulties and to 
meet present sins, and who regards present ecclesias- 
tical organizations as the embodiment of the truth, 
will see, and can only see its downfall; but the man 
who looks beyond these things, and gets glimpses of 
the great movement by which the race of men is to 
be elevated and saved, will always find hope, no mat- 
ter what the antagonisms. 

Such a man will find hope in the very nature of sin 
itself. St. Paul says that " the wages of sin is death," 
and St. James says: "And sin, when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death." The final outcome of present 
evils, if left to themselves, can only result in death. 
These have in themselves their own destruction. This 
is the law of sin: "He that soweth to his flesh shall 
of the flesh reap corruption." This is where the 
Bible places it, and this is where we ought to place it. 



Christ and Our Country. 137 

Many illustrations of this principle can be found. 
Not only individuals, but even nations, have worked 
the problem out to its bitter end, and found death the 
answer. So will the evils of our time find the an- 
swer unless counteracted by a saving power, a gra- 
cious dispensation. Degraded men and communities, 
left to themselves, become more so until the end is 
reached where the conditions of all life are destroyed. 
Christianity will never suffer defeat from this source, 
and hence there is hope of its final triumph. 

The second ground for hope is found in the suffer- 
ing incident upon sin in nearly all its forms. Suffer- 
ing in this world is educative. It presents the true 
wants of the human spirit, no matter how low that 
spirit may have gone into degradation. Evil is itself 
from this stand-point preparing the way and supply- 
ing the conditions for the reception of that gospel 
which comes with medicine for the sick and comfort 
for the sorrowing. Nineveh was on the point of being 
destroyed when Jonah was sent to preach to it. Its 
people were ready to receive the truth he preached to 
them — hard a matter as it was to get him to do it. 
Suffering incident upon the sins of Nineveh had pre- 
pared the way for Jonah's message, and also furnished 
the conditions under which the proud. and ignorant 
city could repent and believe. 

As long as men and communities of men are con- 
tent with their sins, or rather so long as sin is pleas- 



138 Christ and Our Country. 

urable, they will hear no gospel. One of the ways to 
prepare them for it is to wait until sin becomes bitter 
or until they suffer. Then the truth will be heard 
and believed. This is one of the ways that sin de- 
feats itself and reverses the order of things. Here 
is ground for hope. 

The third ground of hope is found in the direct 
conflict of truth with error, of right with wrong, of 
life with death. There can never be any doubt in the 
thoughtful mind as to the result in such a contest, 
it makes no difference where the contest originates — 
whether in politics, science, philosophy, or religion. 
There may be persecutions, inquisitions, revolutions, 
crucifixions, and martyrdom, but the truth finally tri- 
umphs and blesses the world. No single fact can be 
produced to show a failure in any sphere, and espe- 
cially so in religion. 

Sin and want and suffering have a few things con- 
nected with them by which a worker may be helped 
to a hopeful view of the world and its progress. The 
element of hope may be restored. 

2. We consider in the next place the hopeful view 
of things growing out of the good or positive side of 
human life. All hope here is grounded in the nature 
and life of Christ. If evils exist, their expulsion will 
be due to Christ. If error exists, it will be corrected 
by the truth. If there is ignorance, it will be over- 
come by the Christ in whom are the treasures of all 



Conclusion. 139 

wisdom and knowledge. If falsehoods are found in 
our teachings, these will be eliminated by a knowledge 
of Christ. If there is selfishness in the world, it must 
surrender to the advancing power of him who " gave 
himself." If there are imperfections of life and faults 
of character, these will be removed by the sinless life 
of the Son of God. If there are individuals impos- 
ing upon the masses and rendering them poor and 
helpless and empty, these will be crushed by the 
weight of One who is "no respecter of persons." If 
there are national sins, these must fall under the pow- 
er of that King who shall reign until all enemies are 
conquered and his sway is made universal. Why do we 
not believe this and live in the power of such a faith? 
With too many of us Christ is local and limited. 
We think of him as he lived in Galilee. In this we 
do well, but to stop here is hurtful. St. Paul refused 
to know Christ as a man — that is, in the flesh. To 
limit him to organized Christianity, or to any given 
period in time, or to any particular work, is to lose 
sight of much that is beneficial. No Church has ever 
yet been able to contain him, no time sufficient to 
measure him, and no age exhaustive of his energies. 
In his mind there were no secular or sacred things, 
but all things were sacred in their own sphere. He 
was in all things. Something of him may be seen in 
every thing connected with our complex civilization. 
He is the sum of all energy and power and grace — the 



140 Christ and Our Country. 

fullness of man in his highest aspirations. He is the 
"beginning and the end," "the first and the last." 
No time, space, country, age, Church, nor all of these 
combined, can give us the measure of the Christ. He 
is "the Way" for all men, "the Truth " for all time, 
and "the Life" for all in heaven or in earth. This 
notion of Christ is one of the moving, progressive 
powers in the world to-day. 

Some other ideas have found shelter in our time. 
These must go along with the one already given. The 
kinship of all men and the fatherly side of the divine 
nature are thoughts that have come to stay. The 
movement produced by these ideas in their practical 
influence has been and is in the direction of greater 
sympathy for the wants, the sins, and the sufferings 
of our fellow-men. This movement is seen in the 
fact that the nations of the earth are being drawn 
closer together. There is a growing harmony and a 
coming unity. AVars even are so destructive to finan- 
cial plans and pecuniary prosperity that they will 
soon be among the remembered barbarities. The 
leaven of Christ is at work. 

The hope springing up when we think of these 
things is intensified when we remember that Christ 
came to save the nations as well as individuals. 
Christ becomes grander and gives us a better hope 
when we regard him as the Saviour of our nation. 
He is broader and grander still when we begin to 



Conclusion. 141 

think of him as the Saviour of a world. What has 
been done in reforming the individual is proposed to 
be done for the whole earth. The mission of the 
Church and the inspiration of the Church should 
be found in this broader notion of the purposes of 
Christ's coming. 

There is therefore no ground for complaints, no 
reason in taking a gloomy view of things. There is 
no truth in the ^wasz-pessimistic views of our time. 
The kingdom is coming and God reigns. So let the 
people rejoice. Let us feel that every human being in 
tlie world to-day — every one in the past and every 
one in the future — is at work on a common design. 
Let us feel that we are all, and each with all, con- 
tributing our life forces, our thoughts, our love to a 
united work, the fullness of the thought of God in 
Christ, the completed counterpart to his divine pur- 
poses, and the glorified object of all his promises. 
Our country will prosper, our Christ will triumph, 
and our people will rejoice. 



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